GARS provides another boost to Standard Life but annuity sales slump 50%

Standard Life's Q1 figures have been bolstered by further inflows into SLI's flagship GARS fund, but elsewhere the group said it had seen annuity sales fall 50% after March's Budget announcement.

The group's assets under administration rose by £2.4bn in Q1, with Standard Life Investments (SLI) contributing £2bn of this figure. Of that amount, a net £1.3bn of flows came from the group's multi-asset segment - home to its £30bn GARS offering - with the MyFolio multi-manager range seeing inflows of £400m, and the equities division seeing £200m of net flows. That meant SLI's total third party AUM rose 2.3% to £104.8bn on the quarter, though net inflows from outside the UK (£1.3bn) were the largest contributor. Away from asset management, Standard Life said its UK annuity sales f...