Market wobble highlights value of advice

Share market volatility this week caused little concern for KiwiSaver members – and that could be down to financial advisers doing their job.

Friday, February 9th 2018, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

Booster chief investment officer David Beattie said his organisation had received just one call after US markets dropped at the beginning of the week.

He said that could be because the Booster model focuses on members receiving personalised financial advice.

In most cases, an adviser would be the investor’s first contact point rather than Booster itself. He Advisers were given information with which they could respond to any worried clients this week, he said. That would give clients more confidence.

Ana-Marie Lockyer, at ANZ, said there had been only a very small increase in calls and switches. “To put that in context, it is double digits out of 700,000 customers.”

“We continue to remind members that volatility is simply part of share markets. At ANZ Investments we remain focused on long term goals rather than short-term ‘noise’. With global economies continuing to perform well, we believe the fundamentals for good share market performance remain in place. We also have good diversification to help manage volatility,” she said.

“Despite current volatility we believe that maintaining good investment disciplines and staying focused on long-term goals is more important than ever.”

She hoped people would seek financial advice if they felt unsure about how to respond.

“We have seen in the past sensible decisions made when advice is sought. That said we have not seen a lot of our members seek advice this week, and I am not sure we will as members seem to be getting more comfortable with volatility within their KiwiSaver.”

At ASB, general manager of wealth Jonathan Beale said there had been a few calls asking what the market movements meant. “We have put up a blog and additional comms, which certainly seems to help.”

Tags: ANZ ASB Booster KiwiSaver