Investors handed out increasing numbers of bond mandates last year as they sought to avoid volatility, and insurers along with independent asset managers reaped the benefit. Insurers, thanks to their experience managing substantial liabilities, are assumed to be superior performers compared with their independent rivals in bond management – but statistics suggest otherwise.

In Europe, retail investors poured billions of pounds into bond funds run by insurer-owned fund managers, including the Prudential's M&G Investments, Legal & General Investment Management and Standard Life Investments. Figures published last week showed that, to the end of November last year, US and Asian investors placed five times as much into bond funds than they did into equities and mixed portfolios combined, according to mutual fund research firm Strategic Insight.