Better performance by its wealth management divisions and the gaining of further traction in the self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) space helped drive cashflows for AMP Limited over the third quarter.
In an announcement released on the Australian Securities Exchange today, AMP Limited reported that assets under management within its financial planning business, Australian Contemporary Wealth Management, had risen by 14 per cent to $94.2 billion.
The company said this included $10 billion in assets under management in AMP SMSF.
AMP also pointed to the success of the North platform it picked up as a result of its merger with AXA Asia Pacific, with assets under management up 26 per cent on 30 June 2012, and with net cashflows more than doubling to $644 million.
It commented that this was mainly due to stronger cash inflows, "in part from the increased take-up of North by AMP's aligned planner network".
Drilling down on its push into the SMSF space, the AMP announcement said AMP SMSF, comprising of Cavendish, Multiport, Ascend and AMP's 49 per cent shareholding in SuperIQ, had net cashflows of $209 million for the quarter, up from $40 million in the third quarter.
"As at 30 September 2012, AMP SMSF administered more than 9000 funds, up from 3090 member funds in the first half," it said.
However the company acknowledged that these numbers included the 4780 which flowed from its acquisition of Cavendish and the 965 flowing from the acquisition of Smart Super.
The only major dark cloud for AMP in the announcement was in the insurance space, where it said the third quarter experience for Contemporary Wealth Protection had been "poor" with losses of $37 million.
The company said it was taking steps to improve retention and claims management through expanding underwriting, claims and retention resources; targeted retention campaigns at both customer and planner level; and by implementing new claims management policies focused on high cost claims and earlier intervention.
