Royal London Asset Management’s (RLAM) has seen wholesale net inflows rise by a third following a push with advisers and wealth managers, taking funds under management to £117bn ($148.6bn, €131.1bn).
The asset manager attracted external net inflows of £2.2bn in the first half of 2018 from institutional and wholesale markets, up from £2.1bn last year. Wholesale net inflows also grew strongly, increasing 33% to £1.2bn, up from £900m in 2017.
RLAM said it achieved some large investment mandate wins during the first half of 2018 as it broadened its coverage of wealth managers and financial advisers. The firm said it also saw strong gross and net inflows for its wholesale business.
Funds under management increased from £114bn in December 2017.
Gross inflows for Royal London’s platform services, including Ascentric and Succession, remained stable at £1.4bn, as did net inflows at £612m. Assets under administration were up 5% to £15.1bn from £14.4bn in December 2017.
Pensions dashboard push
In a statement accompanying the half-yearly results, Royal London chief executive Phil Loney urged the government to save the proposed pensions dashboard project, stating that the current system is highly fragmented and auto enrolment means people have pensions scattered across multiple schemes and providers.
He said: “In many other countries citizens can see all of their pensions – state, workplace and private – all in one place, and there is no reason why UK citizens should not be able to do so. The industry has already shown its commitment by spending time and money preparing a prototype dashboard.
“We need Government to take a lead, both in ensuring that state and public sector pension data is available and also in requiring all pension schemes and providers to supply data. Only the Government can do this.”
Investment performance
RLAM said despite increased volatility in the first half of 2018, driven by political and economic uncertainty, its European embedded value (EEV) operating profit before tax was up 1% to £187m from £185m.
The prior year comparative included a one-off £30m benefit arising from the restructuring of a reinsurance agreement.
Loney said: “Sluggish economic growth and the ending of the auto enrolment roll out provided a challenging backdrop for pensions and investment companies in the first half of 2018.”
