According to the Investment Management Association (IMA), net retail sales of funds of funds (an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in shares, bonds or other securities) totalled £3.8bn for the first six months of the year, the highest first half on record.

Richard Saunders, chief executive at the IMA, said: “In gross retail sales terms, £1 in every £8 invested in funds was invested in funds of funds in the second quarter.”
Funds under management for funds of funds came to £63.5bn at the end of the second quarter, accounting for 11 per cent of total funds under management.
Balanced funds (consisting of active managed, balanced managed, cautious managed and UK equity and bond income) accounted for over half (57 per cent) of total funds under management for funds of funds.
Gross retail sales of balanced funds totalled £1.86bn in the second quarter, accounting for 49 per cent of total funds of funds gross retail sales.

Although retail sales of tracker funds in the second quarter were not as good as previous periods – net retail sales totalled £313m compared to £515m during the past four quarters – it emerged that 6.7 per cent of total funds under management are put into these types of funds.

Sales of ethical funds (a mutual fund in which the asset managers make investment decisions based upon some ethical code) also performed reasonably well.
In the second quarter, net retail sales of ethical funds totalled £94m, the highest quarter since the fourth quarter of 2007.

The IMA added that ethical funds under management totalled £7.1bn at the end of June 2011, up 23 per cent on the second quarter of 2010.