Home Breadcrumb caret Industry News Breadcrumb caret Industry Breadcrumb caret Investments Breadcrumb caret Market Insights Mutual fund sales top estimates The mutual fund industry beat sales forecasts in January 2011, with total net sales of $3.05 billion, topping The Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s preliminary forecast of between $2.45 billion and $2.95 billion. Total mutual fund assets ended the month at $641.8 billion, up $6.1 billion from December and a hefty $85.4 billion since last […] By Steven Lamb | February 15, 2011 | Last updated on February 15, 2011 1 min read The mutual fund industry beat sales forecasts in January 2011, with total net sales of $3.05 billion, topping The Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s preliminary forecast of between $2.45 billion and $2.95 billion. Total mutual fund assets ended the month at $641.8 billion, up $6.1 billion from December and a hefty $85.4 billion since last January. “The RRSP season was in full swing in January with total fund sales surpassing the $3 billion mark driven primarily by strong balanced fund sales,” said IFIC director of policy, Jon Cockerline. Long-term fund sales brought in $3.97 billion, up from $2.31 billion in December. Money market redemptions slowed to $916 million. Investors continued to pour their money into fund-of-fund products, which enjoyed net sales of more than $2 billion, up from $1.58 billion in December. Over the past 12 months, fund-of-fund net sales totaled $18.3 billion, up over $8 billion from the previous 12 month period ($10.3 billion). Among standalone funds, the balanced category continued its reign, with net sales of $3.42 billion, up more than $1 billion from December. In the past year, balanced funds have pulled in $27.1 billion in net sales. “While the popularity of balanced funds and fund-of-fund products continued to grow last month, we also saw a definite shift away from short-term fixed income funds towards funds focused on higher yielding corporate and foreign debt,” Cockerline said. Bond fund net sales fell by two-thirds from December’s total, to $215.8 million. Equity funds enjoyed a bounce, pulling in net sales of $305.4 million, compared to $794.5 million in net redemptions for December. Steven Lamb Save Stroke 1 Print Group 8 Share LI logo