Mainstream media over-reactions causing damage
The mainstream media and its disproportionate coverage of normal movements in investment markets is serving to undermine confidence in the financial services and superannuation industry, according to Frontier Advisors Australia Director of Consulting, Fiona Trafford-Walker.
Addressing the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) annual conference in Brisbane, Trafford-Walker said the mainstream media drove her mad by treating market movements in a sensationalist manner.
"Markets go up and markets go down and that is normal," she said.
Trafford-Walker pointed to the degree to which trust had been lost in the financial services industry since the global financial crisis and suggested that continuing media coverage had fed into that negativity and to a tendency towards short-termism.
She said the consequent short-termism then fed into the attitudes of super fund trustees.
"And if the trustees have short-term mind sets, so will the managers they seek to use," Trafford-Walked said.
Recommended for you
The new financial year has got off to a strong start in adviser gains, helped by new entrants, after heavy losses sustained in June.
Michael McCorry, chief investment officer at BlackRock Australia, has detailed how investors are reconsidering their 60/40 portfolios as macro uncertainty highlight the benefits of liquid alternatives.
Having reset its market focus to high-net-worth advisers, Praemium’s administration solution has been selected by Bell Potter in a deal that increases the platform's funds under administration by $6 billion.
High transition rates from financial advisers have helped Netwealth’s funds under administration rise by $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter of FY25.
