AMP, Asteron and Westpac have been singled out by ASIC for having higher than expected decline rates for total and permanent disability life insurance claims, in a new review by the corporate watchdog that also revealed a “concerningly high” 60 per cent rejection rate for some narrowly defined policies.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth has been retained by the AMP Financial Planners Association to weigh a possible class action against the wealth manager over its plan to cut the number of authorised advisers and retreat from a promise to buy back their businesses at a set multiple.
A challenge by Quinn Emanuel to a NSW Supreme Court decision staying its shareholder class action against AMP has been unanimously dismissed by the Court of Appeal, which found the class action beauty contest was not decided in error and that subsequently filed representative proceedings were not an abuse of process.
A judge has given the thumbs up to AMP’s new program to identify and compensate victims of so-called insurance churning by its financial planning arm after inadequacies were revealed in the original scheme.
The barrister leading an appeal seeking to revive Quinn Emanuel’s fees for no service class action against AMP has criticised the approach taken in the landmark GetSwift ruling on competing class actions, saying it placed the court in the role of auctioneer and actually encouraged duplicative proceedings.
A judge overseeing competing class actions against AMP over allegedly excessive superannuation fees has signed off on an agreement by two rival law firms to consolidate their cases, avoiding a potentially costly and drawn out beauty parade.
AMP Financial Planning has attempted to qualify its admission to so-called insurance churn allegations by the corporate watchdog, suggesting it might not have admitted to “all contraventions” if it had known ASIC would push for up to 120 separate breaches and $36 million in penalties.
A judge overseeing competing consumer class actions against AMP over superannuation fees said he would be “reluctant” to hold a contest between the two cases, as the applicants in the rival proceedings tell the court they are in talks about possible consolidation.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has followed through on its threat to appeal a high stakes ruling that shut down its shareholder class action against AMP, along with two competing cases, after a two-day beauty parade that saw rival firm Maurice Blackburn take the prize.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has asked a court to impose penalties of up to $36 million on an AMP subsidiary for failing to take reasonable steps to stop its representatives from churning life insurance policies.