Usual suspects Milford Asset Management and AMP bookended the retail fund spectrum last year, according to the latest Plan for Life (PFL) figures, with a more than 50 per cent gap between annual growth-rates of the two firms.
Continuing its extraordinary multi-year run, Milford grew funds under management by over 51 per cent during 2021 as perennial laggard, AMP, went backwards by 1.2 per cent – the only manager in the PFL list to report a negative growth result for the year.
“Most companies reported increases in their Retail funds under management led in percentage terms by Milford (51.1%), Booster (38.6%), BNZ (31.3%), Kiwi Wealth (27.1%) and Fisher (19.6%). Market leaders ANZ (9.1%) and ASB (9.1%) along with Mercer (12.5%) also saw significant increases but BT / Westpac (1.1%) and AMP (-1.2%) finished fairly flat,” the PFL survey says.
By year-end Milford recorded almost $16 billion in retail FUM, up from about $10.6 billion 12 months previously: during the period the Auckland-based boutique soared above both AMP and BT/Westpac to claim third place in market share terms, rising from 8.1 per cent to 10.7 per cent.
At current growth-rates, Milford may even soon challenge the almost $20 billion ASB for second place in the PFL retail rankings. AMP, meanwhile, lost a further 1.4 per cent market share last year, closing the period at 8 per cent (or just over $12 billion).
The poor annual Westpac growth-rate came despite a December quarter boost to FUM via the default KiwiSaver top-up of about $380 million. At the end of last year the bank-owned KiwiSaver scheme reported almost $9.7 billion under management, or about two-thirds of the total Westpac retail FUM of $14.6 billion.
KiwiSaver managers on the wrong side of the default change – AMP, ANZ, ASB, Fisher, Mercer – all took a hit in the PFL December quarter growth statistics with results ranging from -1.8 per cent (AMP) to 2.2 per cent for ASB. Conversely, with the exception of Westpac (up 2.8 per cent for the quarter), the three other current default schemes named in the PFL table – BNZ, Booster and Kiwi Wealth – were the only managers to see double-digit growth over the final three months of 2021.
Simplicity and SuperLife, the remaining two default providers, don’t make the PLF top 10 named retail managers.
ANZ retains the number one ranking with over $32.7 billion under management, albeit while its market share declined from 23.1 per cent to 21.9 per cent during the 12-month period.
Managers outside the top 10 reported collective FUM growth of almost 22 per cent for the year and 6.3 per cent in the December quarter compared to the respective averages of 15.3 per cent and 3.7 per cent.
Following a large year-on-year jump in gross retail fund inflows in 2020, last year saw only a marginal increase of 1.9 per cent (amounting to a total of $40.1 billion) “despite increasing 15.0% in the December quarter”.
“Simplicity, Booster, BNZ, Kiwi Wealth and Milford all reported very substantial jumps in their annual Inflows offset by some falls recorded by AMP, ANZ, ASB and BT/Westpac,” the PFL report says.
Total retail FUM topped out at just under $150 billion by the end of last year, led by KiwiSaver $92.5 billion and retail unit trusts ($47.8 billion). Interestingly, the retail unit trust annual growth-rate of almost 15 per cent was not far behind KiwiSaver, which was up 17.3 per cent for the same period.
However, the PFL report warns the December 2021 result could set the high-tide mark for a while.
“Most global markets have since declined from their year end highs and more importantly remain vulnerable to any long overdue sustained bear market as governments grapple with reining in newly reignited inflation problems caused by the many years of ‘loose/cheap’ monetary policy.”
The Melbourne-based PFL, headed by Simon Solomon, is part of the Institutional Shareholder Services global group.