Mutual funds recorded $1.8 billion in monthly net sales for August, and almost $2 billion in long-term net sales for the month, according to the latest data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

IFIC reported that long-term net sales for the month of August reached their highest total for that month since 1997. Tom Hockin, IFIC’s president & CEO, said, “This represents a healthy showing for our industry and Canadians’ continued interest in investing over the long haul.”

The total doesn’t include the re-invested distributions of $562.8 million, pushing the overall monthly net sales total over the $2.3 billion mark. Balanced funds led the way with more than $1 billion in monthly net sales, followed by the dividend & income category with $848 million in net sales, and bond funds, which had $596 million in sales. This continues a trend that has been evident all year with investors preferring safer income-generating funds.

The flip side of that is that sales in the pure equity categories continue to suffer. Only the U.S. equity category produced positive net sales in the month ($154 million worth). Both the foreign and Canadian equity categories remain in net redemptions, $285 million and $407.8 million, respectively.

The higher redemptions in Canadian equity funds for August marks something of a turnaround in the year to date trend, where foreign equity redemptions total almost $2.4 billion and Canadian equity fund redemptions are at the $1.3 billion mark. This suggests that Canadian investors were even more eager to take some money off the table after a strong run-up in Canadian equity markets this year.

Year to date, balanced funds are the hottest sellers, with almost $8.4 billion in total net sales, followed by the dividend funds at $7.9 billion and bond funds with $5.2 billion.

IFIC also reported that total assets under management in August increased 0.4% from July to an all-time high of $546.9 billion. Among the big firms, larger than average gains were evident at the bank firms such as RBC Asset Management (assets up 1.5%), BMO Investments (2%), and TD Asset Management (1.3%). CI Investments also enjoyed a 1% gain.

Smaller companies recording outsized asset gains include Dynamic Mutual Funds, PH&N, Manulife Investments, Guardian Group of Funds, Standard Life Mutual Funds and Acuity Funds (which enjoyed a 6% leap in assets for the month).

Meanwhile, assets declined at some big players such as AIM Trimark, Mackenzie, Franklin Templeton, and smaller players, AIC and Brandes Investment Partners.