AMP financial planner wasn’t sacked despite being known to give clients ‘inappropriate’ advice

FOR two years “Mr E” was allowed to keep his job — a decision which cost innocent Aussies tens of thousands in retirement savings.

A DODGY financial planner kept his job at AMP for two years even though an internal review found he should have been fired.

Yesterday, the banking royal commission heard the financial services company had known the unnamed planner, known only as “Mr E”, gave his clients “inappropriate” financial advice.

In fact, the firm had been aware that Mr E had been financially harming his clients since March 2017 — however, AMP has still not contacted or compensated any affected customers.

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The commission heard Mr E had told several of his 60-plus clients to roll their super from other accounts into MP’s MyNorth Super portfolio, a move which attracted fees as high as $16,000.

In one case, a couple had their retirement savings slashed after meeting with Mr E to discuss their superannuation.

In November 2016, the unnamed man lost one-quarter of his superannuation from one fund after following Mr E’s advice and transferring $68,000 from one fund and $73,000 from another into the AMP fund.

His wife also lost money after she moved $46,000 from her fund, Vision Super, into MyNorth Super.

However, the royal commission heard suspicions were first raised about Mr E’s advice just months after he started in his role at AMP in December 2015.

One audit into his practices, which was conducted in September 2016, found Mr E was not always acting in the best interests of his clients.

Another audit in March 2017 gave the man an “E” rating — the lowest possible.

Employees who are given an E rating are immediately considered for termination, and the team leading the audit recommended Mr E be stood down.

But instead, the company’s advice compliance review panel chose to keep Mr E after he underwent extra training and additional supervision.

He was eventually sacked in August 2017.

AMP CEO Craig Meller resigned after apologising ‘unreservedly’ for the scandals heard at the royal commission. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

AMP head of advice compliance Sarah Britt faced a grilling by counsel assisting the royal commission Rowena Orr, who demanded to know why AMP had not fired Mr E despite the evidence against him.

“The practice principal offered to put in place certain things in relation to additional supervision of that adviser,” Ms Britt said in response.

“There were discussions around whether there were additional training and controls so that this adviser could be kept on. He was relatively new and relatively junior.

“There was certainly some discomfort around that decision.”

Ms Britt said AMP would now review Mr E’s files and would look into remediating affected clients.

Yesterday’s revelations follow last week’s shock resignation of chief executive Craig Meller, who announced he was standing down after the royal commission was told the company had lied to corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for almost 10 years over its practice of charging fees for advice that was not delivered.

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Originally published as AMP financial planner wasn’t sacked despite being known to give clients ‘inappropriate’ advice