Innovation increases options

For anyone involved in the manufacture, distribution and advice of investment funds, the latest set of statistics from the IMA make very welcome reading a month into the new decade and potentially point to a new era for the industry.

2009 was a record year with net new sales of £25.8bn. On the positive it looks as though investors in the broadest sense of the word started buying at the bottom in the autumn of 2008 shortly after the Lehman crisis. There is no doubt last year’s strong net new sales were driven by a number of factors. One is sustained low interest rate; even unsophisticated investors are beginning to understand cash deposit rates of 0.5% are not very attractive. Set against the latest inflation figure from December, any savings held in an ordinary deposit account earning only 0.5% are diminishing in val...