Stock picking is not a skill every member can and should have access to via their retirement savings, according to Club Plus chief executive Paul Cahill.
Club Plus will introduce direct shares to its product offering next year, but they will not be promoted to all members.
Cahill said that direct equities were not a safe option for all members but rather were an added option for seasoned investors.
"You've got to be careful people don't go mental on them and go off the reservation," he said.
He said the biggest lesson he had learned in over a decade of working in the superannuation industry was that if you gave members something they understood, they would take it.
"There's too much complexity in superannuation…if you offer them something they know about, something they deal with every day, it's not an issue," he said.
Cahill believed it was the reason the industry fund's term deposit option had netted $50 million since it was launched in March.
He expected funds in term deposits to grow to $100 million by the same time next year.
Members putting money away in term deposits accounted for old and new money, Cahill said, with some members moving funds from their super accounts and some members choosing to bank their money with super.
A major super fund has defended its use of private markets in a submission to ASIC, asserting that appropriate governance and information-sharing practices are present in both public and private markets.
A member body representing some prominent wealth managers is concerned super funds’ dominance is sidelining small companies in capital markets.
Earlier this month, several Australian superannuation funds fell victim to credential stuffing attacks, which saw a small number of members lose more than $500,000.
Small- to medium-sized funds have become collateral damage in an "imperfect" model for super industry levies, a financial institution has said.