Volatile equity markets hit National Australia Bank's wealth management businesses, MLC and NAB Wealth, which suffered a 12.5 per cent fall in cash earnings to $533 million. The fall in the second half was 21.1 per cent.Weak equity markets deliver a double whammy to wealth management businesses. The contribution from portfolio returns drops off and investors stop putting money into their funds.NAB's executive director finance, Mark Joiner, said the bank expected that the volatility in recent months had put back the recovery of discretionary flows into superannuation accounts and managed funds by 12 to 18 months Funds under management fell 2.9 billion, from $116.1 billion to $112.7 billion. Funds flow went from a net inflow of $7.2 billion in the 2009/10 financial year to a net outflow of $563 million in 2010/11.The insurance business suffered an 8.6 per cent fall in cash earnings - down from $197 million to $180 million. The second-half result was down 33 per cent on the first half.Wealth management's contribution to group earnings fell from 11.9 per cent to 9.2 per cent year-on-year. When banks bought into wealth management a decade ago they predicted that they would generate 20 per cent or more of earnings from their acquisitions.Despite this underachievement, NAB is investing heavily in MLC adviser numbers. Salaried adviser numbers were up 17 per cent, from 726 to 850, and aligned adviser numbers were up 22 per cent, from 829 to 1014.The head of the wealth management division, Steve Tucker, said the growth in adviser numbers would continue. "We will take as many as we can get," he said.