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AMP companies being sued by ASIC
ASIC has announced the commencement of civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court, suing six AMP companies.
Lauren Croft
ASIC has started the process of suing six companies that were, or are part of the AMP Limited Group, alleging the entities charged fees for no service on corporate superannuation accounts.
The six AMP companies in question are AMP Superannuation Limited, AMP Financial Planning Proprietary Limited, AMP Services Limited, Charter Financial Planning Limited, Hillross Financial Services Limited and AMP Life Limited, which is now part of the Resolution Life Group but was part of AMP when the conduct occurred.
“ASIC is seeking declarations, pecuniary penalties and adverse publicity orders to be made by the Federal Court,” the government body said in a press statement.
“This action follows proceedings commenced by ASIC against a number of AMP companies alleging that they had charged life insurance premiums and advice fees to more than 2,000 customers despite being notified of their death.”
ASIC has further alleged that from July 2015 to April 2019, the AMP companies failed to ensure that a system was in place that didn’t charge customers who no longer had their employer-sponsored account and failed to act efficiently, honestly and fairly – as the companies are obligated to as Australian financial services licensees.
In response to the proceedings, AMP released a media statement with remediation details of fees charged to customers.
“In 2018, AMP became aware that some AMP Flexible Super members continued to be charged a Plan Service Fee after delinking from their corporate super plan into a retail account. AMP took action to rectify the issue, self-reported it to ASIC, and commenced a remediation process,” AMP said.
“The remediation was completed in November 2019, with approximately 2,500 customers being remediated a total sum of approximately A$900,000 covering fees charged and lost earnings.”
The proceeding will be listed for a case management hearing on a date yet to be set.
Lauren Croft
Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.
