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AMP captures biggest slice of super pie

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By Madeleine Koo
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3 minute read

Changes to super and retirement have propelled life insurers to double-digit growth.

AMP's life insurance business captured a third of individual superannuation in the 12 months to September but the financial giant suffered a 23 per cent plunge in net group super flows.

Figures released yesterday by research and actuarial house Plan For Life showed AMP netted 32.1 per cent of the market share in individual super, up 0.5 per cent from a year ago.

ANZ's joint venture with Dutch giant ING followed with 27 per cent of market share, in front of National Australia Bank's MLC with 24.4 per cent.

Net inflows soared across the market by 40.9 per cent, with none of the major companies reporting falls.

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Westpac's BT Financial Group, the Commonwealth Bank's Colonial First State (CFS) and Zurich all recorded double-digit growth.

In contrast to the rest of the life insurance sector, group super grew by only 3.5 per cent, dragged down by a large amount of older, pre-1970 products.

The industry is lobbying the Federal Government to remove barriers that prevent the so-called legacy products to be rolled over and high maintenance costs to be slashed.

CFS's group super slumped by 67.3 per cent, while AMP fell by 23.1 per cent and ING Australia dropped 16.8 per cent.

MLC dominated in retirement income products, accounting for nearly a third of net pension flows at 30.5 per cent, up 5.5 per cent on the previous year.

It was a stellar year for the retirement income sector, which was up 35 per cent on 2006 in the wake of tax-efficient changes to super legislation.