Recent research has indicated that pension investments hit a significant high of £13.4 billion in quarter 3 of 2017.
According to Equifax Touchstone data, pension investments were up 66.3% annually speaking, growing by 2.8% from Q2.
When looking across all pension products, transfers increased by 54.3% year-on-year, reaching £6.4 billion in Q3.
The data, which is representative of over 90% of life and pensions companies in the UK, also showed that total pension investments hit £7.0 billion in this quarter, excluding transfers. Whilst on a quarterly basis this is a modest rise of 0.9%, the annual increase of 78.9% is much more significant.
Though Q3 showed a positive trend on the whole, SIPP sales did take a slight downward turn, falling by 4.1% from Q2.
Commenting on the figures was John Driscoll. The Director of Equifax Touchstone stated: “Pension investments during the quarter have remained extremely positive, building on strong performance throughout the first half of the year. Inflows remained resilient to political and market uncertainty, buoyed by strong performance of stock markets.
“Although speculation leading up to the Autumn Budget may impact Q4 figures, the lack of legislative change within the final Budget will have ultimately stabilised the pension sector. In the final quarter of the year we expect to see high volumes of pension transfers persist; defined benefit transfers, in particular, will continue to soar as savers look to benefit from temptingly high transfer values.”
