SLI posted net inflows of £3.4bn, nearly double those of its closest rival, Old Mutual Global Investors, which saw net inflows of £1.8bn.
While taking the first and second place in the gross retail sales table, M&G Investments and Invesco Perpetual reported higher outflows and failed to make it in the top 10 table for net inflows. M&G reported £9.65bn of gross retail sales last year while Invesco Perpetual saw £8.1bn.
The winners
Patrick Connolly, head of communications at Chase de Vere, said it came as "no surprise" that Standard Life has topped the league.
"The Standard Life GARS fund has been popular due to its high degree of capital protection," he said.
Despite not quite outperforming its peer in the net sales category, Old Mutual saw a good performance in 2013 as the firm went through a rebranding in the first half of the year, according to Warren Tonkinson, head of distribution at Old Mutual Global Investors.
"We had Richard Buxton joining us but our results are not dominated by any fund manager. Our winning funds were the absolute return, strategic bond, the US range and our multi-manager funds," he added.
Looking forward to 2014, Tonkinson said that Old Mutual's champion funds for the year were likely to be the UK Equity Income fund managed by Stephen Message and the Monthly Income Bond and Corporate Bond funds, headed by Christine Johnson.
Outflows vs inflows
Leading UK investment manager M&G attracted new money but also recorded strong outflows.
"M&G has a wide range of funds, and its [major] products such as fixed interest, equity and property funds are always likely to be popular."
However, Connolly raised concerns over the sheer size of the company, which will be susceptible to high levels of outflow, which could lead to underperformance as sectors fall out of favour.
Last year saw a fair amount of money go into equities as money flowed out of fixed income funds.
"The Global Basics fund, managed by Graham French until he retired in November, saw money go out. Similarly, the Recovery fund underperformed," he said.
Invesco Perpetual also saw weak net retail sales in the report, where outflows following star manager Neil Woodford's planned departure dwarfed the firm's other stronger performing funds.
BlackRock, Artemis and BNY Mellon made up the rest of the top five spots, in net retail terms, taking £1.63bn, £1.49bn and £1.46 respectively.
