No paparazzi – Outsider ain’t feeling pretty

Outsider has sought to stay away from the Melissa Caddick financial planning fraud scandal because, frankly, he thinks coverage has reflected badly in general terms on financial advisers and the financial sector more broadly.

But having said all of that, he is reminded about why, many years ago, the senior editorial executives of Money Management (Outsider and his offsider) decided not to publish personality photographs on the front cover of the magazine.

Why? Because, as recently proved, those personality photographs can pop up years later to justly, or unjustly, diminish your publication’s credibility.

Outsider is reminded that the Institute of Managed Account Professionals (IMAP) ran into just such a problem when it used its magazine to publish a photograph of former notable financial planner, Sam Henderson, just before he was named in the Royal Commission and he notes that one of Money Management’s competitor publications has been found to have published a cover photograph of Caddick many years ago.

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For the record, and in defence of Money Management’s competitor, the photograph of Caddick was nigh on 20 years’ old when she was in fact invested in an advice firm and carried an authorisation and unlike some of Outsider’s young colleagues, the editor of that magazine at the time did not have a crystal ball.

But one should always assume that today’s rooster may be tomorrow’s feather duster or just plucked chook, so no personality pics for Money Management’s front cover and not just because Outsider is not looking his best today.