Rathbone Brothers saw its funds under management increase to £44.1bn at the end of 2018, despite the volatility that had plagued the markets at the end of the year.
The company's assets grew by 12.8 per cent on the previous year while the FTSE 100 fell by 12.5 per cent and the MSCI WMA Private Investor Balanced index fell by 7.2 per cent.
Rathbones saw net inflows of £8.5bn, including £6.8bn of assets from the Speirs & Jeffrey acquisition last year.
In a trading update to the market this morning (January 10), Rathbones said: "Whilst market conditions can reasonably be expected to be volatile in 2019, we will continue to invest selectively for the longer term in the skills and infrastructure necessary to improve our operational efficiency and deliver high quality services to our clients."
Funds in the Rathbones investment management division were £38.5bn at the end of December 2018, up 13.9 per cent over the course of the year.
While Rathbones saw its funds under management increase over the year, during the fourth quarter of 2018 they fell on the back of "weaker investment markets".
In the last three months of the year funds in Rathbones's investment management division fell by 6.8 per cent from £41.3bn.
Net organic inflows in investment management during the fourth quarter were "higher than expected" at £574m, compared with £254m in the same period in 2017.
Funds managed by the unit trusts division were £5.6bn at the end of December, up 5.7 per cent from 2017.
damian.fantato@ft.com
