The chief executive of major Tasmanian-based superannuation fund, Tasplan, Neil Cassidy has criticised some media commentators who he said had been guilty of suggesting people switch funds on the basis of only one year’s performance figures.
At the same time the fund chief has called on the regulators to act against commentators found to be giving erroneous or impaired advice.
Cassidy said that following the commencement of choice of fund there had been a rush of advertising and commentary in which truth and common sense appeared to have been major casualties.
“Of significant concern has been the focus of some prominent media ‘personalities’ on returns for a single year,” he said. “Just about everyone in the financial industry will tell you that superannuation is a long—term proposition and that we should be looking at the performance of super funds and investment managers over three, five and even 10 year periods.”
Cassidy said the rationale for taking the longer view was compelling but simple: “Last year’s best performers are not necessarily going to be among the leaders this year — or as we so often see at the bottom of advertisements, ‘past results are no indication of future performance’.”
Cassidy, claimed it was short-sighted advice which had led to the debacle in the United Kingdom where over $2 billion in member funds were lost through ‘churn’ when the industry in that country was similarly deregulated.
He called on the regulators to be tough with media ‘personalities’ in particular, as many of these are ‘exempt’ from the laws governing financial advice that bind everyone in the industry.
