Club Plus makes play for direct equities

Club Plus plans to launch a direct equities product to complement its term deposit offer within the next six months.

According to chief executive Paul Cahill, members had no current interest in direct equities, but the fund wanted to move ahead of the game on the back of the quick success of its term deposit launch in March. 

Club Plus recently launched the term deposit product for members in the accumulation phase. Cahill said the product had attracted $7 million in funds in one week. He said that during the first three months of launching the product to its pension members, 20 per cent had moved their funds into the term deposit option.

"Our next strategic step is the direct shares because it's like the left hand and the right hand…this is the time you bring it in because no one wants it," he said.

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Cahill said if the fund had introduced term deposits two years ago, it would be at full capacity now. Club Plus has moved onto the second version of its term deposit model, which Cahill said was a benefit of getting in early. 

"We've been down that path. We've seen how it works and doesn't work. We're working on gen 2 which is the next phase," he said.

He said offering direct investment options to members was a strategy to stop members leaving to start a self-managed super fund. 

Once the fund had direct equities in play, government cuts to the official cash rate would pose less of a threat, he said.

Club Plus has found a platform and plan to administer the offer through its current administrator, Australian Administration Services.

"We've got the proposal. It's all ready to go. It's just what date we drop it," he said.