Club Plus Super has doubled the number of online financial planners as demand for advice has swelled, says its chief executive Paul Cahill.

The $2 billion fund, whose members work for clubs, hospitality and related industries, has been responding to growing demand for advice from its membership as well as higher usage of the Fund’s public and secure sites from mobile phones.

“We weren’t even picking the low hanging fruit,” Cahill said. “It’s demand driven. We had to put more people on.”

The financial planners respond via instant chat on Club Plus’ public website, which has been optimised for mobiles. “We are one of the rarer funds with an internal financial advice business,” he said.

The fund has identified advice and education of its members as a key focus in 2015 and it is keen to employ more financial planners to meet this goal. It plans to offer free retirement seminars at clubs nationwide, to offer a new mobile optimised members’ website with video content and web-chat, and a re-developed public website.

He believes that the best model for the fund is to offer services based on in-depth research into the 90,000 strong membership base. “We go from the bottom-up, drilling in as deep as we can” he added. “Rather than following the model of companies like Apple who create something without demand.”

Cahill’s objective is to create two-way dialogue between the fund and the community, so that they can assist members in their decision making process, particularly those transitioning into retirement.