Number of investors in Irish Life MAPS grows by 37% to 60,000 investors
Irish appetite for investing has soared as the number of investors in Irish Life MAPS has grown by 37% from 46,000 to over 60,000 individual investors in the last 12 months.
Over half of people (56%) have an investment value of €30,000 or less, showing the appeal of Irish Life MAPS, which are available on Irish Life’s investment and pension plans.
Over the last 12 months, investors in Ireland have added an additional €31 million a week in new investments on average into the funds.
This is an increase of almost 35% on the previous 12 months, where the average value of new investments was €23 million a week.
The increase in the number of investors combined with the rise in value of individual investments has added €1.4 billion to Irish Life MAPS in the last year, going from €2.6 billion in April 2017 to over €4 billion currently.
There has been proportionate growth in the numbers of male and female investors over the last five years; currently, 57% of Irish Life MAPS investors are male and 43% are female.
Commenting on Irish Life MAPS and its five years in operation, Anthony McGuinness of Irish Life Investment Managers, which manage the funds, said:
Despite economic crises in Greece, concerns for China’s growth and the market ripples created around the US presidential election and Brexit vote, the Irish Life MAPS funds have gone from strength to strength, and the actual performance stayed within the range of expected returns.
He continued; “A third of Irish Life investors are under 50 years, with an overall average age of 54 years. Over half of people (56%) already invested in Irish Life MAPS have an investment value of €30,000 or less, while 15% have investments over €100,000.
“The advantage to the typical Irish Life MAPS investor is clear; at the start they match their risk profile to one of five funds ranging from cautious to adventurous and see the expected range of returns for their chosen fund. Three in every four Irish Life MAPS investors are invested in MAP3 or MAP4, both medium risk funds.
"As the market leader for retail investments in Ireland*, this analysis of Irish Life’s customer base presents an interesting picture of investment behaviour in that Irish consumers are returning to investing in order to seek greater returns for their money.”
