Super diversification blunts Trump tariff impact | Australian Markets

The degree to which superannuation fund members ought to keep away from being spooked by the impact of the US Trump tariffs has been demonstrated by new evaluation from Chant West which suggests the impact by way of March and April is definitely round a comparatively modest 2%.

With most financial advisers urging their purchasers to not be spooked into crystallising their losses, Chant West’s latest evaluation stated the median super fund (61 to 80% in growth belongings was down 1.9% in March.

It stated this introduced the median return back to five.5% over the primary 9 months of the present financial 12 months.

Looking at April, to date, Chant West estimates that the web impact is that the median growth fund is simply down about 2%, albeit it cautions that this might change given US coverage volatility.

Commenting on the scenario, Chant West Senior Investment Research Manager, Mano Mohankumar, stated that with the heightened volatility being seen in share markets, it’s vital that super fund members keep in thoughts that super is a long-term investment and there are going to be intervals of market weak point by way of their super journey.

“While we recognize that members all have totally different tolerance ranges for seeing their account stability going backwards, the bulk can afford to stay affected person, even many older members. Lots of Australians don’t take out all of their super as a lump sum at retirement, so a substantial quantity is prone to stay the super system within the pension section, typically for a few years. Their investment horizon is longer than they might suppose it’s.

“When markets fall sharply, there is a tendency for some people to think about moving to lower-risk options or cash, with a view to moving back later, either out of fear or as an attempt to time the market. But far more often than not, that strategy results in a worse long-term outcome than if you stay the course. Not only do you convert paper losses into real ones, but you also risk missing part, or all of the subsequent market rebound.”

Mohankumar added that super fund members need to additionally bear in mind the ability of diversification, which has returned to the fore in 2025.

“Taking the total month of March as an instance, we noticed Australian shares retreated 3.3% over the month whereas worldwide shares had been down 5% and 4.7%, in hedged and unhedged phrases, respectively. However, the median growth fund’s loss was restricted to 1.9%, benefitting from diversification throughout a wide selection of growth and defensive asset courses together with various and unlisted belongings.

“At the same time, growth funds still have about 55% invested in listed shares on average, and are able to capture a meaningful proportion of the upside when those markets perform strongly as we saw in CY23 and CY24, when the median growth fund returned 9.9% and 13.4%, respectively.”