Behavioural Finance with Simon Russell

In this conversation with Kim Payne from 9rok we discuss the roles of language, of personalisation, of price and of effort in communicating the value of professional services. Expensive wine tastes better, in part, because it's expensive. The drawers from Ikea seem more valuable because of the effort you put into constructing them. We discuss how financial advisers, super funds, real estate executives and others can apply these principles in the way they communicate with their clients and members.

In this conversation with Jared Norris we discuss the reasons why a disconnect can occur between ESG investments and client & member expectations; the challenges financial advisers and super funds face when engaging and educating clients about complex ESG issues; why the assessment of governance-related issues presents the biggest opportunity for improvement; and how technology, surveys and triage tools can help overcome some of these problems.

Trust in the workplace has been identified as being particularly important during the work-from-home pandemic. But what does 'trust' really mean? And what about the related concept of 'psychological safety'? How can these things impact team decision-making? And what should leaders be doing to improve trust - both in their own actions and in the processes they use across their organisations? Workplace Wellbeing Educator, Anna Glynn, and I explore these questions in our conversation.

I discuss the new Members Best Financial Interest obligations with Jonathan Steffanoni from QMV Legal. Under these new rules, will super funds be able to spend money on improving their web sites, on running campaigns to select cohorts of members about their insurance or investment selections, or on developing new lifecycle products? Does it matter if that expenditure is reflected in employee salaries, or is paid to contractors or third party service providers? What evidence will funds need to provide to justify these expenditures?

In this behavioural finance conversation with Andrew Varlamos, CEO of OpenInvest, we discuss how investment managers and platforms can facilitate SMSF trustees making collaborative decisions and how, when combined with ongoing reassurance, this can lead to better financial outcomes, greater financial wellbeing and even better marital relations!

In this discussion David Reckenberg (Managing Partner, QMV Legal), Leigh Johnston, Consulting Practice Lead at QMV, and I speak about the new Product Design & Distribution Obligations in the context of major super funds. What are the potential blindspots and gaps? What questions should trustees be asking? We cover product governance, operational issues & behavioural insights.

Here is the second part of my behavioural finance conversation with Stephen Huppert. In this 13 minute recording we discuss problems we have seen with various forms of super fund member engagement - letters, emails, web sites - and how they can be better aligned with behavioural research. More specifically, we discuss the benefits of super funds providing short bursts of member engagement that are delivered just-in-time, with personal relevance, and that are linked with an identifiable and easy action for members to take. We cover the use of data & technology, checklists and decision-trees, the fact that people don't like think of themselves as average (even if they are), and how people who have already retired aren't interested in learning how to prepare for retirement! The conversation is relevant for super funds primarily, but also financial advisers.

We live in extreme times! But will things revert to 'normal'? In this behavioural finance conversation with Julian Morrison from Allan Gray we speak about the frequently mentioned but often misunderstood concept of mean reversion. We discus when it typically works (think energy stocks & profit margins) and when it doesn't (think Woolworths & gross sales). We discuss the underlying causal and statistical mechanisms, how you can use mean version to diagnose a problem with capitalism, why even sophisticated investors don't think about mean reversion enough, and why tall parents might appear to under-feed their children. This 13 minute recording is relevant for investors and advisers.

In this behavioural finance conversation with Andrew Varlamos, CEO of OpenInvest, we discuss how SMSF investors collaborate with each other (or fail to) and how they incorporate other decision-makers' views into their investment decisions. We cover the need for SMSF trustees to make their hidden thoughts and opinions explicit, and to receive good feedback. And Andrew warns that if your wife raises her eyebrow, trouble might be on the horizon.

I recorded a behavioural finance conversation with Stephen Huppert about super fund member engagement. We discussed how behaviourally naive attempts at member engagement can backfire, whether technology is an enabler or an excuse, and how appropriately engaging with members can be difficult when we "put fences around fences around fences".