Coronavirus and super: Key messages from the major super funds

The impact of the Coronavirus has created a great deal of uncertainty, caused widespread disruption around the world, sharemarket falls, and is a very dynamic situation. If you are concerned about how this impacts you personally, we encourage you to get financial advice.

All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions. Learn more

Precisely how this virus will impact markets long term is not fully known. In an economically interconnected world though, there are concerns that company earnings in developed markets will be impacted as the virus spreads. Share markets across the globe have declined in recent days, pricing in this concern. QSuper

Financial markets do not like uncertainty. What we are experiencing is not out of the ordinary. Over any 20-year period, we might expect 4 to 5 years where sharemarkets have a negative annual return. These periods of negative returns often occur after markets have had very positive returns. For example, the US stock market was up approximately 30% in the 2019 calendar year. And with the recent events, markets are back to where they were in the early part of the 2019.

The Coronavirus is having a similar impact to many other previous periods of uncertainty. The key issue for financial markets is the spread of the virus and the impact this spread has on the economy, due to restrictions on travel and decreased activity and demand for goods/services. To a large extent, financial markets have already priced a short, sharp downturn in economic activity. Likewise, financial markets are also pricing a substantial policy response from governments to support. AustralianSuper

We also have to bear in mind that we’ve had 10 consecutive positive years. So it’s almost the correction that we had to have. Unisuper

We would encourage our members to be mindful that superannuation has always been, and will continue to be, a long-term investment. Accordingly, our investment portfolios are designed and structured to provide appropriate resilience and weather the gyrations presented by the unpredictability and instability currently being experienced in world investment markets. Hostplus

Reacting to short-term market movements can negatively impact the long-term performance of your super. It risks locking in a temporary fall in the value of your investments and missing an eventual rebound. HESTA

Be careful reacting to short term market movements. On Tuesday 10 March 2020, the Australian share market was up approximately 3%* following a very large fall on Monday 9 March, 2020. Statewide Super

Most members in super funds (including MySuper) are invested in a variety of asset classes, not just the share market. Different asset classes perform differently over time which helps to even out the highs and lows of market volatility in a particular asset class. BT Super

Historically, pandemic scares have been opportunities to buy risk assets at prices below fundamentals (as we saw in the case of SARS in 2003). This may ultimately once again prove true in this particular case, but markets could go either way from here and predicting that is impossible. Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation

For those with 15, 25 years or more until retirement, this crisis is one of many they will experience during their working lives. The compensation for accepting the kind of short-term market turmoil we are currently experiencing is higher long-term returns. Sunsuper

A way to lose money in super after a downturn is to make changes that crystallise your losses. People avoid selling their house during a property market slump because they are worried about making a loss, the same principle should be applied to changing your super fund or investment option immediately after a market drop. Industry Super Australia

While it may seem counter-intuitive, history has demonstrated that for those who are unlikely to draw on their super in the short-term, the best action is often to take no action. During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), some members elected to switch to cash or very defensive options in search of lower volatility and stability.

Unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to predict when market confidence will return and recover. As such, attempts to mitigate risk by attempting to time market gyrations simply crystalised and in many cases exacerbated losses. By way of example, the share market fell some 40% in 2008-9, but recovered near to all that fall in the following 12 months, and subsequently went on to exceed the pre-GFC levels. Hostplus

Understand how much risk you’re comfortable with taking when it comes to how your super is invested and build this into your financial plan. You may want to consider regularly reviewing your financial plan to make sure it still reflects your current needs. For instance, if you’re moving towards retirement and your super is invested in a high-growth investment strategy, your level of risk may be too high. BT Super

If you have an investment timeframe of two years or less, you might want to seek advice if you plan to change how your super is invested or your investment choice. HESTA

It’s important to remember that we all hope to live a long time, and in order for our wealth to last as long as possible, we need to maintain some exposure to growth assets – such as shares. However, it’s generally not a good idea to have excessive exposure to shares – a sharp downturn just prior or just after to retirement can do significant damage to retirement plans.

For those members who feel they may be over exposed to shares and are very worried about the impact of this downturn on their retirement, they may need to consider moving to a more conservative strategy. However, there are two key things to remember:

1. Recent negative returns from share markets follow years where share market returns were considerably stronger than longer-run norms. Moving to a more conservative strategy now, after markets have declined, locks in a loss of capital.

2. A more conservative strategy by its nature delivers lower long-term returns, and is not likely to capture the full benefit when share markets eventually (and inevitably) recover. Sunsuper