Mutual funds recover in 2011

The mutual fund industry managed to gather $1.13 billion in net new sales in December, capping 2011 off with full year sales of $21.2 billion, according to data released by the Investment Fund Institute of Canada (IFIC).

That’s slightly short of the $1.3 billion sold in December 2012, but well ahead of 2010’s full-year sales of $12.0 billion. Sales in 2009 were a virtual rounding error.

The industry finished the year with $769.7 billion in assets under management, a decline of $2.96 billion or 0.4%, according to Jon Cockerline, IFIC’s director, policy and research.

Long term fund sales totaled $1.2 billion in December, with full year sales totalling $27.2 billion, with balanced funds pulling in $27.7 billion, down from $28.6 billion for 2010. December sales alone were $1.04 billion.

Bond funds also finished the year in positive sales territory, with $8.87 billion in new cash, compared to net sales of $11.1 billion for 2010. December sales totaled $1.54 billion.

Straight equity funds’ were hit by $10.8 billion in net redemptions, roughly the same as last year’s total of $10.7 billion. Investors pulled $1.53 billion out of equity funds in December.

There was no love for money market funds, which saw $5.91 billion in net redemptions over the year.

IFIC wasn’t alone in releasing sales stats today. The Canadian ETF Association released its year-end sales data as well, reporting $7.6 billion in net sales for 2011. Between mutual funds and ETFs, one in every four net investment dollars in 2011 flowed into ETFs.

Staff

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