AMP casts watchful eye over planners

New regime to raise standards

By Madeleine Collins
Mon 09 Jul 2007

AMP reacts to enforceable undertaking.

AMP Financial Planning (AMPFP) has hired more than 30 specialists to inspect the competency of its planners in the wake of a regulatory crackdown.

Known within AMP as "the vetting team", the move is part of the financial group's efforts to improve advice standards after an ASIC investigation led to an enforceable undertaking 12 months ago.

Planners can move from a category of "pre-vet" to "post-vet" if their advice is approved and found to be proficient, AMPFP managing director Michael Guggenheimer said.

"It's really a process which should provide some comfort [to clients]," Guggenheimer said.

He said the team will build up the competency of planners in meeting those standards.

"They're pretty busy everyday."

A seven-month surveillance exercise by the regulator found evidence that AMPFP's planners were not properly disclosing the costs of changing super funds and may have not been managing conflicts of interest.

The group's financial services guide and website were potentially misleading consumers about the number of products they were allowed to offer, ASIC said.

AMP has the biggest distribution and employs the largest number of planners in the country.

Last month, AMPFP wrote to 1500 clients who were affected by the advice problems to offer them a refund or the chance to move back to their old super fund.

"It's too early to say what those 1500 clients are going to do," Guggenheimer said.

"It's important we did that. Having made a mistake, what we're always endeavouring to do is to correct it."

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