The collective offices of financial planners around the continent are no doubt quiet this week as the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services call up the big boys of the advice world for hearty “please explain?”
The first company in question, AMP, is of personal interest to me, considering I completed their popular career transition programme, Horizons in 2012. Whilst the teaching and experience learned about financial planning was not bad, the introduction of the morally hazardous vertically integrated advice model common in the majors left a little to be desired.
Suffice to say 80% of my colleagues felt the same way and we all soon headed for the exit upon its completion.
Interestingly, notably absent from the honors roll are all the big names present when I graced those haunted hallowed halls. To be honest, it is a little disappointing that most of the management who made the decisions aren’t at the commission to defend those decisions.
Instead appears Anthony ‘Jack’ Regan, recently appointed (from New Zealand?) to front the firing squad, and it’s not going well:
By mid morning on day two of the second round of hearings at the Hayne royal commission, AMP has admitted to making a further nine false statements to ASIC about its practice of charging customers fees for services they didn’t provide taking the total number of falsehoods to 19.
“There’s so many you will have to rely on my account Mr Regan” counsel assisting Mr Michael Hodge QC told AMP’s Mr Regan.
One only hopes that once the dust settles on this, whoever is left at AMP see it in their heart to award Mr Regan a military pension, in light of his service on the front line.
But, what I am wondering is where are all of the Australian execs? Why did the AMP feel it had to fly in a New Zealander to answer for his Australian counterparts?
