New pension investments in the UK, excluding transfers, increased by 37% to £6.8bn in the first quarter of this year, up from the £5bn recorded at the end of 2016.
That is according to analysis from Equifax Touchstone, which reveals that net inflows for the quarter increased by 55.4% from the same time last year.
This is despite no political party securing an overall majority in the recent general election, leaving the futures of the state pension age and triple lock up in the air.
"It's encouraging to see such a positive start to 2017, well up on levels seen in 2016," Equifax Touchstone director, John Driscoll, said. "Growth in pension inflows has proved resilient to political uncertainty.
"It will be interesting to see if concerns about whether stock markets are due a correction will start to impact inflows for the rest of the year."
The analysis involved data from more than 90% of the UK's leading life and pensions companies.
It shows that, including transfers, total pension investments for the first quarter of this year reached £12.4bn, up by 30.3% on the previous three months.
A breakdown of the different types of pension investments in the first quarter of this year, and the last one of 2016, is shown below:
The quarterly figures highlighted ongoing investor desire to switch to products that better suit their retirement needs, as transfers across all products rose by 23.3%, while SIPP inflows increased 16.6% to £3bn, with total sales up 25%.
"Advisers are receiving increasing requests from clients to opt out of their final salary scheme," Driscoll continued.
"As investors continue to weigh up the benefits of a guaranteed final salary pension, versus flexible access to their retirement savings, it's likely this behaviour will follow through into the next quarter.
"Pension transfer volumes will continue the upward trend as 'insistent clients' give greater weight to flexibility in their financial planning."
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