Coronavirus (COVID-19): 9 March 2020

Update from our CIO and CEO on 17 March 2020 here.

What’s the impact of the new coronavirus on NGS Super’s portfolio?

From a portfolio perspective, the negative impact continues to be largely contained to the investment options with a greater exposure to share markets. Diversification across the investment options provides some immunisation and therefore lessens the impact of negative share markets. Our investment options have a good amount of exposure to bonds, infrastructure, property and other defensive alternatives, which continue to perform well as share markets fall. In addition, our share portfolio is more defensively positioned and our expectation is that the NGS Super share portfolio will outperform the market.

It’s also important to note that NGS Super’s unit prices are calculated weekly, meaning that daily and intraday market movements are averaged out. Read more about unit pricing here.

Do I need to do anything about my super?

NGS Super takes an active approach to monitoring the markets as they react to events, but it’s also important to remember that superannuation is a long-term investment. Markets cyclically rise and fall, and our portfolio is designed with the aim of levelling out fluctuations to achieve our members’ long-term retirement goals.

It’s natural to worry about your savings. In fact, loss aversion theory suggests that the pain of losing is psychologically twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. Within investment markets this can drive people to buy, sell or take other actions at a time that may not necessarily be in their best interest over the long term.

Particularly during times of turbulence, having a plan and strategy helps. If this seems like a good time to build a plan and strategy for your superannuation, insurance and/or non-super managed investments, then contact us to find out more.

The NGS Super Helpline is also here to help: call us on 1300 133 177, between 8:00am and 8:00pm (AEST/AESD), Monday to Friday. Please note that wait times may be longer while we help other members.