Standard Life Financial has reported premiums and deposits of its insurance subsidiary increased by 19% to $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2014.
The surge was mainly driven by solid results in its retail investment funds business, which grew by 38% over the same period last year.
Further, assets under administration were 8% higher, compared to December 31 2013, at $52.1 billion—that was due to strong net sales in retail investment funds and positive market movements.
“For a third consecutive year, we’ve been first in the market in net sales of segregated funds, and we’ve reached the $6-billion mark in assets under management during the quarter,” says Charles Guay, president of Standard Life Financial.
“We’ve also continued to focus on the specific needs of SMEs [and] we’ve had good traction since the launch of our Voluntary Retirement Savings Plan in Québec this summer,” he adds.
Read: Standard Life’s Quebec VRSP approved
Overall premiums and deposits in retail business were up 41% to $664 million in the third quarter. That growth was driven by the continued success of the retail segregated funds, which grew 30%, to $416 million, over Q3 2013.
What’s more, mutual fund sales have increased, up 77% to $115 million in the third quarter. This is partly due to the success of global funds introduced throughout 2013.
Overall premiums and deposits in group savings and retirement rose by 10% to $798 million, and core defined contribution business was up by 10% to $623 million.
Finally, group insurance and disability management premiums gained 3% to $180 million, benefiting mainly from the improvement made to drug management services for plan sponsors, as well as new online service capabilities for customers.
In terms of the company’s outlook, one thing to consider is, earlier this fall, Standard Life PLC announced it was selling its Canadian businesses, including Standard Life Financial, to Manulife Financial.
The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2015, and is also conditional upon, among other things, approval from certain Canadian regulatory authorities.
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