A year of growth for retail managed funds

Retail managed funds have increased by 20.2 per cent from last year, to a total of $467.4 billion at the end of March, according to new Plan for Life research.

The St George Group experienced the greatest growth in funds under management, with an increase of 27.2 per cent over 12 months.

Following closely were AMP, Macquarie, Aviva, AXA, BT/Westpac, Commonwealth/Colonial and National Australia/MLC, which all achieved placements in the group of highest annual growth rates.

Over the past year, gross inflows were up by 12.6 per cent and, during the March 2006 quarter, grew by 9.8 per cent to $55.8 billion.

From a superannuation perspective, funds grew by 21.7 per cent during the year, with St George again having the highest growth rate (27.7 per cent), although there was only fairly minimal growth of 1.9 per cent in the sector’s overall gross inflows.

Retirement income funds increased by 6.1 per cent during the March quarter and were up by 20.7 per cent for the year.

Substantially high annual gross inflow growth rates were reported by Asteron (363.6 per cent) and Macquarie (128.5 per cent), but in both cases this apparent growth was offset by similarly large jumps in their outflows.

Cash trusts funds experienced an annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent and a gross inflow increase of 6 per cent, although levels remained virtually unchanged for the March quarter.

Unit trusts and investment funds grew by 6.9 per cent during the March quarter, with an annual growth rate of 22.7 per cent.

High annual inflow percentages in this space were reported by Challenger (122.8 per cent) and National Australia/MLC (45.2 per cent).

In the area of investment bonds, funds grew by 3.4 per cent over the year, with only Lifeplan Australia Friendly Society achieving any significant growth (14.8 per cent).

Inflow growth rates were up by 3.7 per cent for the quarter, while for the year they showed an increase of 15.4 per cent.