Earnings, net flows and AUM are all on the rise in the Hartford's [profile] mutual fund unit.

Yesterday the insurer revealed a 16-percent year-over-year rise in net income for its mutual funds unit's third quarter net income. This morning on the Hartford's Q3 2014 earnings call with analysts, Hartford chief financial officer Beth Bombara confirmed that, excluding the liquidation at the end of Q2 of the Hartford's target date funds, the Hartford's Q3 2014 net mutual fund inflows reached nearly $400 million, compared to $645 million in net outflows in Q3 2013 [see Seeking Alpha's transcript of the call]. Including that shift, the Hartford brought in $93 million in net mutual fund inflows last quarter.

"Performance remains solid, with 75% of funds outperforming their peers over the last five years," Bombara told analysts on the call. "Redemptions continue to decline resulting in positive net close for the third quarter in a row."

The Hartford's mutual funds business earned $22 million in Q3 2014 net income, up from $19 million in Q3 2013. Overall the insurer earned $388 million in Q3 2014, so the mutual funds unit accounted for about 4.90 percent of the Hartford's total net income.

None of the analysts on the earnings calls asked for more information about the mutual funds business.

Total Q3 mutual fund sales dipped slightly year-over-year to $3.753 billion, yet mutual fund assets under management climbed 10 percent over the last 12 months to $73.295 billion on September 30, 2014. (Meanwhile, annuity mutual fund AUM fell 11 percent to $22.867 billion.)

To dig deeper into the Hartford's results, see its earnings release and the full Seeking Alpha transcript of the earnings conference call. 

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