Retail managed funds suffer $80bn decline

Australia’s retail managed funds moved 4.6 per cent lower during the 2021–22 financial year to $1,005.5 billion, according to new data released by Plan For Life.

In the June quarter alone, total funds under management (FUM) fell by 7.4 per cent or $80.9 billion as global stock markets experienced widespread losses.

Plan For Life said that all four leaders in the retail managed funds market suffered a decline in FUM over the financial year including Insignia (down 6.8 per cent), BT (down 7.6 per cent), Commonwealth/Colonial (down 9.7 per cent) and AMP (down 8.9 per cent).

“Currently, asset prices remain under pressure as authorities worldwide raise interest rates to more sustainable levels from historic lows to control inflation,” Plan For Life said.

“However, so far, they have yet to be successful (not really surprising as real interest rates are still negative) so further rises and reciprocal falls in asset values are inevitable.”

In contrast to the broader retail managed funds market, HUB24 (19.9 per cent) and Netwealth (17.5 per cent) both outperformed with double-digit gains.

Overall, however, Insignia remained the market leader with a 19.3 per cent share of the total FUM equivalent to $194.4 million, followed by BT (16.4 per cent), Commonwealth/Colonial (13.4 per cent), AMP (13.2 per cent) and Macquarie (10.7 per cent).

Regarding sector-wide inflows, Plan for Life reported a slight uptick of 2.3 per cent on the year to $190.2 billion.

Double-digit increases were experienced by Insignia (51.3 per cent), HUB24 (46.4 per cent), netwealth (30.7 per cent), La Trobe (23.1 per cent), Macquarie (15.7 per cent), Praemium (16.1 per cent) and Challenger (11.0 per cent).

AMP saw little change over the period (0.8 per cent), while inflows fell significantly for both BT (down 16.1 per cent) and Commonwealth/Colonial (down 16.3 per cent).

Plan for Life’s analysis by market revealed a decrease in FUM for the superannuation and rollover sector by 7.1 per cent, retirement income by 6.9 per cent and investment bonds by 2.2 per cent; increases were clocked by cash trusts (5.8 per cent) and unit trusts & investment funds (0.2 per cent).

Jon Bragg

Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.