IMA: Concentration of fund flows 'not happening as we expect'

The Investment Management Association has said there are signs the polarisation of fund flows is decreasing, despite consolidation across the distribution chain pointing to the opposite effect.

Data compiled by the trade body for its 2013/2014 annual survey, released last week, shows funds outside the top 100 bestsellers increased their overall market share last year at the expense of the top 20 bestsellers. The figures, calculated on a gross sales basis, challenge the notion fund sales are becoming more concentrated because of an increase in the number of advisers outsourcing investment decisions, and the launch of a number of new fund buy lists which typically rate the same names. "With respect to the evolution of the funds market in the face of […] changes in the distribu...