Retail fund inflows down in March quarter
Combined retail managed funds in Australia totaled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars ($257.3 billion) as of March 31, which was an increase of 12 per cent over the last year.
Plan For Life Actuaries & Research have released data for the March quarter that shows while the retail funds have had a "healthy" increase over the 12 months to the end of March, inflows in this quarter have been paltry in comparison.
Inflows fell overall by 2.4 per cent to total $32 billion which held back an otherwise impressive 12 months of inflow increase of 25 per cent.
The managers that achieved the highest inflow growths over the 12 months to March were UBS with a massive 299 per cent increase, AXA with 80 per cent and ANZ with 77 per cent.
For retirement income, funds under management overall increased a modest 2.1 per cent. The Commonwealth/Colonial Group were on top with more than $6 billion under management, followed by National/MLC with more than $5.1 billion and AMP close behind.
However, the highest growth in retirement income in funds under management for the 12 months was experienced by AXA and St George with 42 and 29 per cent respectively.
While there were a handful of falls in funds for this quarter, Citicorp was the only manager to suffer an annual fall in retirement income of 5 per cent.
Similarly, the retirement income fund inflows found the March quarter rough territory, down 5.3 per cent from the last quarter. However, retirement income fund inflows were up by 13 per cent for the year to the end of March, with AXA again scoring the best performer title with an increase of 105 per cent in inflows, according to Plan For Life.
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