In an announcement to the market on Wednesday, the wealth giant said a class action had been filed against its subsidiary AMP Financial Planning in the Federal Court in Melbourne.
“The proceeding is brought on behalf of certain financial advisers who are or have been authorised by AMPFP,” AMP said.
“The claim relates to changes made by AMPFP to its buyer of last resort policy in 2019. AMP is confident in the actions it took in 2019 and will defend the proceeding accordingly.”
The news follows ifa reporting that a class action against AMP was imminent and would be brought on behalf of over 100 former AMP advisers by Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
The Adviser Association chief executive Neil Macdonald said the action was a necessary option following feedback from AMPFP advisers.
“We would have preferred, and we continue to prefer, that AMPFP work with the association to negotiate fair and reasonable outcomes for all members,” he said.
“This is obviously imperative for those who are exiting, but it is just as important to those who are staying, so that they can continue to provide Australians with affordable access to financial advice.”
He added that BOLR values had been “a key plank of AMP’s ecosystem” that the group’s advisers had relied on when setting up their business.
“These are businesses that were valued by AMPFP for lending purposes at four times recurring revenue and in most cases were funded by AMP Bank loans or via another tripartite banking arrangement, again at four times recurring revenue,” Mr Macdonald said.
“In many cases advisers had to put up their family homes as security and are now at risk of losing them. Many of our members stated they had little choice but to join the class action.”
I sincerely hope this class action is successful and that the many principals wronged by AMPFP’s unilateral decision to reduce BOLR terms, amongst other actions done by AMPFP, receive some justice and compensated accordingly, including the Principal that I worked for.
“certain planners”!!. Its a open class action AMP! That means its everyone
I wish you luck. One thing is guaranteed – the Legal profession will win regardless.
Realist is obviously an AMP executive.
Unconscionable bastards are AMP, deal with them at your peril. They will sell their own mother for a quick buck. Incompetent in the extreme and willing to break faith and dump anyone if expedient to their own interests. They should be removed as a licensee as not being fit and proper to operate. The inertia of past glory is coming to an end. Sell AMP, destroy their share price and let some competent mob take over.
Like IOOF, ANZ, CBA or Westpac? That’ll work!
no competent mobs left…LOL
What’s wrong with Ioof?
Let us hope that senior management bear the brunt of the end results of their actions — it will be shareholders and not the management but lets at least hope some of it flows through to the management. Karma hopefully exists.
Its interesting that because of AMP’s actions no IFA’s that i’m aware of will go near their insurance products or platforms never mind their funds management…. they are also losing quite large corporate superfunds. The cartel that is AMP is starting to implode
Bottom line is AMP reneged. You can argue the toss on the whole BOLR system but AMP changed the rules after selling at the higher price. Spare a thought for some very good planners ripped off.
i echo the sentiments of optimist – bury the bastards
i wouldnt even pay 1x for an AMP book. just advisers wanting to get paid for nothing as far as im concerned.
Spoken like a true clown who has zero idea of what is going on.
The other perspective is it is advisers seeking to have contractual terms met by a large national corporation. Realistically if the class action is successful it will be based on law and not on what is fair.
i agree – not sure why these AMP advisers are shocked that the multiples got repriced. anyone with half a head on their shoulders would see it coming. AMP simply cant pay premium for low quality books
From what I read, the re price of the register is not the issue. It’s the fact they didn’t give the required notice specified in the contract for the planner to make informed decisions. On top of that they still don’t let practices leave and take their clients
The small business owners need to be recompensed fully for the AMP theft. Then ASIC and the ACCC need to send the Board, the CEO and and the 3 other executives to the big house for their crimes.
Amp done this around 1986it was called an ADF the same thing happened the people who set up ptycompaniies did know why they done that I was lucky I didn’t take any loan thenyears later they wanted all advisors had to pay it back same think all over again just pay what you owe them and let them get on with life
AMP were not the only ones doing this ADL’s or agency development loans were given to stop agents going to other companies, lump sum interest free, the problem was most agents spent this on boats, new cars ect….
The “L” stands for loan. It means you have to pay it back. It’s a simple concept you would expect a financial adviser to be familiar with.
Good luck. I hope you win.
It’s my understanding that its considerably more than 100 advisers, I heard more like 400 practices.
Every practice in the network was affected by this, every practice would be mad not to participate.
Taste it AMP. You can’t bully everyone