Oct 21 (Reuters) - St James's Place raised its gross inflows target for the year, as surging savings and rising consumer confidence helped it bring in 2.56 billion pounds ($3.53 billion) in new money over the past three months.

Wealth managers have seen their assets under management reach record levels since the pandemic took hold as huge savings due to lockdowns and low interest rates drove up their inflows. The uncertainty had also boosted demand for financial advice.

"There remains uncertainty around the near-term economic and investment market outlook, but our business is in great shape and we now anticipate the rate of gross inflow growth for the second half to be modestly ahead of our previous guidance," Chief Executive Andrew Croft said.

St. James's Place, which had previously forecast second-half gross inflows growth of 20%, said it now expects inflows to increase by around 25% for the full year.

"Beyond 2021, it is natural that we will see variations in the pattern of new business growth we achieve over time," Croft added.

The British asset manager said funds under management closed 25% higher in the quarter ended September 30 at 148.06 billion pounds ($204.56 billion), boosted by net inflows of 2.59 billion pounds. Gross inflows rose to 4.32 billion pounds from 3.05 billion pounds. ($1 = 0.7244 pounds) (Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)