CI Financial today reported net sales of $157 million for August and a record level of fee-earning assets at the end of the month of $71.1 billion.

Fee-earnings assets are up of 0.1% from a month ago and have increased $7.2 billion, or 11.3%, from one year ago.

“We are fortunate to have large exposure to Canada, which has been one of the best-performing markets in the world,” said Stephen MacPhail, CI president and COO, in a news release.

Its subsidiary CI Investments Inc. had gross sales of $554 million and net sales of $113 million, consisting of $112 million of net sales in long-term funds and $1 million of net sales in money market funds.

Another subsidiary, Assante Corp., had gross sales of $148 million and net sales of $44 million.

Assante also has changed the name of its subsidiary Assante Asset Management Ltd. to United Financial Cor.. The new name distinguishes Assante’s investment management business from its wealth planning business, allowing for increased growth through its various distribution channels.

As part of the change, the Assante name has been dropped from three of its investment management products — Artisan Portfolios, Private Client Managed Portfolios and Optima Strategy. The investment pools for Optima Strategy and Private Client are now known as the United Pools.

In August, securityholders in the CI mutual funds, the Artisan Portfolios and the United Pools approved proposals to establish fixed operating expenses at a new lower level, effective today.

“Investors voted overwhelmingly in favour of this unprecedented plan, which will provide them with lower costs and greater transparency and certainty about their cost of investing,” MacPhail said.