Aged care products could be the next frontier for super funds in the member direct space, according to Bravura Solutions business development manager John Burke.
Although the use of member direct options by industry fund members is relatively small, shares and term deposits should be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the future of industry fund competitiveness, according to Burke.
Burke said regulations had forced industry funds to implement member direct options in a bid to stem the flow of self-managed super funds however funds needed to be constantly innovating and broaden their horizons beyond shares and term deposits to retain members into post-retirement.
The Roy Morgan research released last week which showed industry funds failure to seize onto cross-selling opportunities highlighted the issue, Burke said.
"It's outside of the box as a concept but we really see funds going down that path of offering a wider range of value-adds services," he said.
"They need to be innovative with their product lines and aged care's one example of what they could do there – there's a whole raft of different products that can be offered and white-labelled into that base."
Property could also be accessed through the member direct channel, he said, in the same way retail investors were given access to the wholesale bond market.
"Those sorts of products can also be manufactured and made available through direct property – through pooling a group of members who might want to buy direct property," he said.
"The relationships can allow that facility to occur without going outside of the current legal structures of the super fund."
