AMP in court defending super fees class action
Law firm Slater and Gordon has gone immediately public in highlighting a legacy class action it is pressing home against AMP Limited over allegedly excessive fees charged on superannuation accounts.
The class action kicked off in the Federal Court this week with both Slater and Gordon and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers seeking to prosecute clams that AMP trustees systematically overcharged members between 2008 and 2020 “especially those invested in uncompetitive, high fee products, MySuper products, cash and term deposits.
Financial Newswire recently reported that current and former AMP clients had been notified of the class action and given the chance to opt in.
Slater and Gordon said the central clams are in relation to overcharging of administration fees on a number of large, expensive products such as Flexible Lifetime Super, MySuper accounts, as well as overcharging investment fees on cash and term deposits.
“No other retail fund was charging investment fees on cash or term deposits like AMP,” the firm said.
“We believe the evidence in this case will show that AMP was driven by profit and not the best interests of its superannuation members – made up of millions of hardworking Australians,” Slater and Gordon’s head of class actions, Emma Pelka-Caven said.
“This is about justice for ordinary Australians,” Pelka-Caven said. “These are people who trusted AMP to safeguard their retirement savings – and instead lost thousands of dollars.”
She said that despite Hayne’s suggestion that AMP was seeking to sweep aside the issues highlighted with its operating model during the Financial Services Royal Commission, through this proceeding, members seek compensation for the breaches they allege occurred over an extended period of time. AMP continues to deny wrongdoing and has defended the class action since proceedings began in 2019.
“AMP’s conduct represents a serious failure of duty, transparency and fairness. The class action alleges that AMP superannuation trustees were deferential to the financial interests of the AMP Group at the expense of the interests of members. This had a harmful impact on millions of AMP superannuation account balances,” Maurice Blackburn national head of Class Actions, Rebecca Gilsenan said.
“Millions of Australians were unknowingly short-changed over years. Through this class action, AMP superannuation account holders are seeking accountability and to be restored to the position they would have been in had the AMP trustees complied with their duties”
The trial, set to run for seven weeks with Slater and Gordon claiming that it will reveal misconduct that was not part of the Hayne Royal Commission.
Lol – lawyers talking about excessive fees.
How ironic.
It’s hard to decide who to root for here, AMP or the ambulance chasers, they are both extremely unlikeable. On balance the courts need to do something about this continual frivolous class actions, which are nothing other than an attempt to shake big companies down for a settlement that the ambulance chasers take a 40% commission on.
That is correct, the Lawyers are charging their excessive greedy fees and are no different to the organisations they try and shake down
Yeah these class actions are getting out of control. The lawyers and litigation funders are the very definition of conflicted in these situations.
There needs to be a clear benefit to investors if these are to go ahead. At the moment the lawyers walk away with enormous settlements for minimal work because it’s cheaper than defending. Meanwhile investors are left with a few paltry dollars.
There may be additional motivation for the ambulance chasers in this case. They are union aligned ambulance chasers, and regardless of outcome this case will cause further reputational damage to AMP, thus benefiting union aligned (“Industry”) super funds.
I’m not sure AMP can damage a reputation that is already so damaged that they will be totally out soon.
Lawyers with their excessive fees and charges making hollow promises and lying to AMP policy holders filling their heads with promises of riches…uh – huh.
Pot Kettle?