By James Langton

(February 15 – 17:40 ET) – The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is reporting that January net sales, excluding re-invested distributions of $323 million, totalled $2.2 billion, up from about $1.3 billion in January 2000.

Money market funds accounted for $789 million of the total, leaving $1.4 billion going into long-term funds. However, it is not unusual to see RRSP contributions go into money market funds initially before investors make their asset allocation decisions.

Long-term net sales are about flat with last year, up just 2%. Gross sales are down this January, but redemptions are down by a greater percentage.

Among the long-term funds, foreign equities continued to garner the most attention, with net sales of $489 million. They were followed by U.S. equities at $257 million, Canadian equities at $241 million and balanced shares at $220 million. This differs markedly from last year where RRSP-eligible clone funds were all the rage and investors were dumping other equity funds to buy them.

Investors Group continues to lead the way in assets, with almost $45.4 billion, which would grow to about $77.7 billion if its acquisition of Mackenzie Financial goes ahead as planned. The only notable move among the top 10 companies saw TD Asset Management surpass AGF for sixth place, with a strong month. Among the bigger firms, CIBC, AIC and Altamira saw relatively strong asset growth.

“RRSP season is off to a good start,” states Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president and CEO.” January sales were up 58.2% over the previous month and 69.9% over January 2000. Clearly, conditions are beginning to focus more than they did during last year’s RRSP season on investing for retirement.”

Total assets under management increased in January to $425.5 billion, up 1.6% from $418.9 billion in December. Assets are up 11.2% from last January’s figure of $382.7 billion.