Montreal-based Standard Life Financial Inc. Wednesday reported that premiums and deposits of its insurance subsidiary increased by 19% to $1.7 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up form $1.4 billion a year earlier.

Standard Life says the performance was mainly driven by solid results in the retail investment funds business, which grew by 38% in the period compared to last year’s.

Assets under administration were 8% higher, compared at $52.1 billion, compare with $48 billion at Dec. 31, 2013, due to strong net sales in retail investment funds and positive market movements.

“For a third consecutive year, we’ve been first in the market in net sales of segregated funds and we’ve reached the $6-billion mark in assets under management during the quarter,” said Charles Guay, president, in a release.

“We also continued to focus on the specific needs of SMEs, with more and more SMEs and their brokers choosing our Pension in a Box solution. We’ve also had good traction since the launch of our Voluntary Retirement Savings Plan in Quebec this summer, and we recently launched our federal Pooled Registered Pension Plan,” added Guay.

Overall premiums and deposits in retail business were up 41% to $664 million in the third quarter. The growth was driven by the continued success of the retail segregated funds, which grew 30% to $416 million.

Mutual fund sales have increased, up 77% to $115 million in the third quarter. This is partly due to the success of global funds introduced in 2013, such as the Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund and the U.S. Monthly Income Fund, Standard Life says.

Overall premiums and deposits in group savings and retirement rose by 10% to $798 million. Core defined contribution business was up by 10% to $623 million. Standard Life says it is also seeing positive results with its new approach to helping customers plan for retirement through its Member Financial Services Centre.

Group insurance and disability management premiums gained 3% to $180 million, benefiting from the improvement made to drug management services for plan sponsors and the new online service capabilities for customers.

Standard Life Financial’s primary operating subsidiary, The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada, reported a strong solvency ratio of 229% at the end of September, compared with 232% at the end of June.

On September 3, 2014, Standard Life plc announced it had reached an agreement to sell its Canadian businesses, including Standard Life Financial, to Manulife Financial Corp. The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2015, and is also conditional upon, among other things, approval from certain Canadian regulatory authorities. Standard Life plc shareholders approved the sale on October 3.