In 2025, target-date funds continued on the track of three trends investors can be relatively pleased about.
For one, they’ve gotten bigger. The total amount of investor money in these funds reached $4.8 trillion in 2025, largely thanks to another year of stock and bond market gains, according to a report published earlier this month by investment research firm Morningstar. As a group, target-date funds have grown by 11.9% annually over the last half-decade.
They’ve also gotten cheaper. On average, the funds charged an annual expense ratio of 0.27% in 2025, according to the report — down from 0.29% the year before and 0.55% in 2015.
Finally, these funds have become more aggressive, with more funds, on average, exposing their investors to higher allocations of stocks for longer, Morningstar reports. The asset mix that’s appropriate for you depends on your tolerance for risk, but generally, portfolios with higher stock allocations have tended to outperform those tilted toward bonds over the long term.
With target-date funds, the long term is key. These investments are designed to be all-in-one portfolios, funds that you hold from when you first start investing through retirement. And over the course of the decades you’re likely to be invested in one of these funds, factors such as fees, performance and investment mix can make a huge difference, experts say.
Investors have $4.8 trillion in target-date funds-how to choose one
