ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against six companies that are, or were, part of the AMP Limited group, alleging these entities charged fees for no service on corporate superannuation accounts.
ASIC alleges the AMP companies charged advice fees to more than 1,500 customers despite being notified that those customers were no longer able to access the relevant advice. ASIC alleges AMP received over $600,000 in advice fees from affected customer accounts.
ASIC further alleges that from July 2015 to April 2019, the AMP companies:
- deducted financial advice fees from 1,540 customers’ superannuation accounts despite being aware that the customer had left their employer-sponsored superannuation account and therefore could not access the advice for which those fees were paid;
- failed to ensure that a system was in place that did not charge customers who had left their employer-sponsored account; and
- contravened their obligations as Australian financial services licensees to act efficiently, honestly and fairly.
ASIC is seeking declarations, pecuniary penalties and adverse publicity orders to be made by the Federal Court.
The six AMP companies are:
- AMP Superannuation Limited;
- AMP Life Limited, which is now owned by Resolution Life NZ, but was part of AMP when the conduct occurred;
- AMP Financial Planning Proprietary Limited;
- AMP Services Limited;
- Charter Financial Planning Limited; and
- Hillross Financial Services Limited.
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 (21-115MR).
AMP Superannuation Limited is the trustee of two superannuation funds: the AMP Superannuation Savings Trust and the AMP Retirement Trust.
The proceeding will be listed for a case management hearing on a date yet to be set.
