Of that, £835m came into through the wealth management and discretionary space, with Martin Cholwill’s UK Equity Income Fund of particular interest. The group boasts it is the only fund in the IMA UK Equity Income sector to beat its peer group average in each of the last five calendar years. The group’s fixed income franchise was a further contributor to inflows.
The remaining £1.66bn was through a number of institutional mandates, through strong links with the charity and further education sectors.
Gross inflows totalled £3.9bn – almost a 70% increase on last year’s figure of £2.3bn.
RLAM AUM up 11%
RLAM assets under management rose 11% from £47.55bn at the end of December 2012 to £52.95bn.
Total group AUM were up 48% on last year, now at £73.6bn, including the £20.5bn of fnuds acquired through the acquisition of Co-operative Asset Management Limited in July 2013.
Platform Ascentric reported net new assets of £1.68bn over the year, compared with 2012’s £1.21bn, which it said was down to the improved economic conditions and suggested the RDR had “refocused” the adviser community, which it said led to greater demand for platform services in 2013.
That saw Ascentric’s 43% increase in total assets under administration, now £7.3bn, grow its market share of the UK platform space. It added that a record 800 new adviser firms signed up to the platform, which it said put it in a strong position coming into 2014.
Continued support post-RDR
Royal London said the group would continue to invest in proposition and service quality to support the adviser channel in the post-RDR environment.
Phil Loney, group chief executive of Royal London, said: “Overall new business performance in 2013 was strong, with significant year on year gains in pensions and investments. It is particularly pleasing that we have achieved strong new business performance across our range of pension, drawdown, wrap platform and asset management offerings.
“The Retail Distribution Review reforms have led many intermediaries to rework their business models. The market's focus is now firmly on the quality of products and service offered by providers rather than on levels of commission, and Royal London has benefitted from this as we continue to build a more customer centred business.”
