Fund sales remain healthy

The mutual fund industry enjoyed another month of solid net sales in March, bringing in $3.45 billion in new money. Long-term funds attracted $4.15 billion in net new money, while money market funds were hit by $706.6 million in net redemptions.

So far this year, total industry assets have increased by $43.4 billion to $813 billion. Total mutual fund assets under management in March gained $2.63 billion, or 0.3%, over February’s $810.4 billion. Year over year, AUM has increased by $1.17 billion or 0.1%.

March traditionally sees a fall-off in sales, as the RRSP contribution deadline passes. Total net sales for March were $3.45 billion, down from $7.08 billion in February and also lower than the $4.36 billion in sales for March 2011.

Balanced funds remained the investment of choice, with net sales totalling $3.03 billion.

Sticking with the relative safety theme, investors dropped another $1.8 billion into bond funds.

Equity funds were hit by $884.8 million in net redemptions; that’s a bit better than February’s $990.4 million in redemptions.

Money market fund net redemptions in March were $706.6 million. Over the last 12 months, money market fund net redemptions totalled $5.71 billion.

When it comes to structure, funds of funds continued to gain ground on standalone funds, attracting $2.58 billion in net new sales, versus $871.3 million for standalone funds.

Wraps are still lag substantially in total assets under management, with $182.4 billion, versus the $630.6 billion held in standalone funds.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.