Wraps and master trusts – Norwich and Westpac chart a course to the top
According to the latest Assirt market share statistics, Navigator topped net inflows for the sector in the December quarter, narrowly pipping Westpac's offering. However, Westpac emerged victorious for the year growing a hefty 54 per cent to 2890. Navigator grew 35 per cent to $875 million.
The two master trusts have totally different distribution. Westpac's distributes its funds exclusively through its branch network while Navigator relies entirely on independent financial planners for inflows, much the same as the sector's biggest player the St George Bank-owned Asgard master trust.
Asgard also had a strong year in 1998, recording inflows of $831 million which saw its funds under administration rise above $5 billion, nearly $2 billion bigger than its nearest rival Navigator.
Big rises in the top three discretionary master trusts underpinned strong growth in the entire master trust sector in 1998 which grew nearly $3 billion, or 8 per cent, to $36 billion.
The trend towards discretionary master trusts continued unabated, making up more than two thirds of the total inflows for the year. Discretionary master trusts ended 1998 with $23.5 billion under administration.
Top 8 discretionary master trust net inflows
Manager Oct-Dec 98 ($m) 1998 ($m)
Navigator 206 875
Westpac 205 1016
Asgard 166 831
Summit 77 185
IOOF 34 274
Questor 32 121
AMP 9 -24
MasterPlan 3 14
Top 10 discretionary master trust (December '98)
Manager Size ($m) Market Share (%)
Asgard 5251 23
Navigator 3352 15
Westpac 2890 13
MLC 2537 11
Questor 2181 10
Flexiplan 1248 5.5
AMP 1029 4.5
Summit 858 4
Colonial 747 3
Heritage 673 3
Source: Assirt
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