{"id":46339,"date":"2019-09-13T13:02:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T03:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=46339"},"modified":"2019-09-18T05:45:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:45:16","slug":"ampfpa-takes-action-against-amp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/09\/13\/ampfpa-takes-action-against-amp\/","title":{"rendered":"AMPFPA Takes Action Against AMP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the AMP Financial Planners Association (ampfpa) are stepping up action to contest changes announced by AMP.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
AMFPAs Neil Macdonald …taking action against AMP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 8 August this year, AMP announced that it planned to cull its adviser network and reduce the amount it would pay under its Buyer of Last Resort (BOLR) terms to exiting advisers from four times recurring revenue to a maximum of 2.5 times. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ampfpa CEO, Neil Macdonald<\/strong> says, \u201cThis action was taken without consultation with ampfpa, without the required 13 months\u2019 notice to advisers, and after AMP assurances that existing BOLR arrangements would not change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He noted that as recently as May 2018, AMP Financial Planning\u2019s then managing director met with AMP practices around Australia to reassure them that prevailing BOLR terms would remain the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBased on this assurance, many practices may have made a decision to stay on with AMP last year, rather than exercising their BOLR rights,\u201d said Macdonald.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ampfpa surveyed member practices about the action they want to take and confirmed it received a response rate of over 90 per cent. Macdonald said of those who responded, over 93 percent indicated they support legal action.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur members intend to hold AMP accountable for the severe financial, reputational and psychological harm it is inflicting on its own advisers.\u201d<\/span><\/h6>\n

Ampfpa has since arranged legal packs outlining the available options for its members and is seeking additional information from them. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that tier one legal firms are prepared to run a class action against AMP and funders are available at very competitive terms,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cOur members intend to hold AMP accountable for the severe financial, reputational and psychological harm it is inflicting on its own advisers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The ampfpa stated is has also:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Prepared an issues paper on behalf of its members, as well as member questions for AMP<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Invited AMP senior management to attend a meeting in September with advice practices staying on with AMP <\/span><\/li>\n
  • Written directly to individual members of the AMP Board of Directors outlining ampfpa’s concerns <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Ampfpa stated this letter followed two previous letters that the association sent directly to each individual member of the AMP Board on 5 August 2019 and 7 August 2019, both of which were ignored. <\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cThe response we received to the third letter came from AMP management and does not inspire us with much confidence,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Macdonald said the ampfpa objects to suggestions that the advisers currently being culled by AMP are those who will not be able to meet new compliance obligations or will not be able to transition to a fee-for-service practice. <\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cIt has been reported in the media that AMP has identified practices that won\u2019t make it through the transition because, \u2018their business economics simply aren\u2019t strong enough\u2019. In our opinion, what this actually means is that AMP thinks they cannot profit from these practices and so is organising their exit. This does not excuse AMP from honouring the agreements it has with these practices and the BOLR terms that were in place before 8 August 2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Members of the AMP Financial Planners Association (ampfpa) are stepping up action to contest changes announced by AMP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":46375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,8,270],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-46339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-associations","category-compliance-regulation","category-remuneration","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}