Improving market conditions have boosted the growth of the retail managed fund industry, according to research from Plan for Life.
Retail managed funds ended 2012 on a positive note, increasing by 3.9 per cent over the December quarter and with total funds under management (FUM) for the full 2012 year increasing by 12.4 per cent to reach $549.8 billion.
"A recovery by underlying investment markets from the choppy, going nowhere malaise they were suffering from in the previous two years saw all of the leading companies report increases in business," Plan for Life's analysis of retail managed funds said.
The report analyses companies by both marketer view (labelled products) and administrator view, which also includes white labelled products marketed by separate entities.
In an administrator analysis, top performing companies were AMP, which saw an annual growth in FUM of 20.2 per cent, IOOF which increased by 16.5 per cent and Commonwealth/Colonial with grew by 13.3 per cent.
Gross inflows for the 2012 reached $172.9 billion, which was an increase of 1.2 per cent on the previous year's results.
Plan for Life also found that wholesale funds jumped 5.1 per cent in the December quarter to $447.8 billion.
"Overall gross wholesale inflows during 2012 were $103.5 billion, which was fairly similar to the corresponding 2011 figure, up just 2.9 per cent," Plan for Life stated.
"Inflows, however, jumped 49.5 per cent in the latest December quarter again, largely due to some sharp rises in wholesale institutional inflows reported by Challenger, AMP and Commonwealth/Colonial."
Commonwealth/Colonial's FUM grew by 9.7 per cent over the December quarter while Challenger and AMP saw inflows increase by 6.6 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.
