Sales data for February shows that investors opted for fund-of-funds products rather than stand-alone mutual funds during RRSP season, and the balanced category was the most popular choice.

Statistics released by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) on March 18 show that fund-of-funds products, which purchase units of other funds rather than buying the underlying securities directly, were by far the most popular choice among investors last month. The fund-of-funds category garnered a little over $6.3 billion in net sales in February, while stand-alone funds only accumulated $216.6 million.

Net sales of $5.3 billion

Most of the money went into balanced funds, which saw net sales of $5.3 billion, which is a significant increase compared to the net sales of $471 million recorded in the previous month. Equity and bond funds had net sales of $744 million and $570 million respectively, and speciality funds experienced net redemptions of $39 million.

Due to the decline in the stock markets, assets under management for the mutual funds industry declined to $1.20 trillion in February, down $11 billion or 0.92% compared to January 2016.