The firm reported pre-tax profit of £301.9m, up from £210m a year earlier, while AUM dropped to £169.9bn from £178.7bn in 2010.
Gross new business for the period was £43bn, down from £46.6bn in the previous year.
Aberdeen said it had seen AUM grow steadily for most of the year, but the events of the past few months had brought a reduction on last year’s figure.
New business flows have been primarily into GEM and global equity strategies, Aberdeen’s traditional strength areas.
Asian fixed income and EM debt capabilities have also seen favourable uptake, with inflows of £1.6bn into these strategies during the year.