Institutional assets in the U.K. continued to grow in 2014, increasing 7.7% to a total £2.8 trillion ($4.3 trillion), said the Investment Association.
In its latest asset management survey, the Investment Association said overall assets managed by its members also increased in 2014, by 10% to £5.5 trillion.
Of U.K. institutional assets, pension funds retained the dominant share, representing 52%, or about £1.5 trillion of total assets. That increased from about 51%, around £1.4 trillion, in 2013.
Insurance assets represented a further 32%, or £900 billion, at the end of 2014, compared with £846 billion the year before. The remaining institutional assets are managed on behalf of corporations, subadvisory clients, not-for-profits and the public sector, said the Investment Association.
About £2.1 trillion of institutional assets were managed on behalf of third-party clients, excluding internally managed insurance assets and those assets managed in-house by occupational retirement plans. That increased 10.5% from £1.9 trillion in 2013.
Pension funds accounted for the lion's share, about £1.4 trillion, in 2014. That was up from about £1.3 trillion at end-2013.
A shift from specialist allocations — those focused on one asset class — continued, in favor of multiasset portfolios.
Third-party assets in specialist equity allocations fell to 43% from 47%. But a preference was shown for global equity allocations, which represented 42% of all specialist equity allocations, up from 39% at the end of 2013.
Specialist fixed-income allocations increased to 37% at the end of 2014 from 35% a year previous.
Multiasset allocations accounted for 14% of third-party institutional assets, up from 11% as of Dec. 31, 2013.
Active management also continued to dominate, accounting for 68% of third-party institutional assets at the end of 2014, up from 65% the year earlier.
