New pension investments (excluding transfers) jumped by over a third (36.8%) during Q1 2017, rising to £6.8bn from £5bn in Q4 2016.

New inflows for the quarter were more than twice as high year on year, increasing by 55.4% (£4.4 billion) on Q1 2016, according to analysis from Equifax Touchstone, an intermediary database provider.

Q1 2017 SIPP inflows stood at £3bn, an increase of 16.6% on Q4 2016. Total SIPP sales for the quarter were up 25.0%.

The data, which covers more than 90% of the UK’s main life and pensions companies, shows that total pension investments, including transfers for Q1 2017, reached £12.4bn, up by 30.3% on the previous quarter.

The quarterly figures highlighted a continuing investor desire to switch to products that better suit their retirement needs as transfers across all products rose by 23.3% to £5.6 billion, says Equifax.

John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, said: “It’s encouraging to see such a positive start to 2017, well up on levels seen in 2016. Growth in pension inflows has proved resilient to political uncertainty and 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.

“Advisers are receiving increasing requests from clients to opt out of their final salary scheme. 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.”