Law firm announces plans to launch class action over super fees
A law firm intends to launch a class action against the trustee of a bank-owned superannuation fund for fees which it claims were used to pay advisers conflicted remuneration.
William Roberts Lawyers and Litigation Capital Management (LCM) are working together to bring a class action against Suncorp Portfolio Service Limited, the trustee responsible for the administration of Suncorp Super Funds, which is part of the Suncorp Group Limited.
The class action will allege that Suncorp Super executed agreements to entrench fees to be used for payment of conflicted remuneration to financial advisers that would otherwise have become banned and unlawful from 1 July 2013 as a result of the FOFA reforms, it said in a public statement.
The law firm said the class action will allege Suncorp Super breached its duties to avoid conflicts, act with due care and diligence, and act in the best interest of its members.
It stated that it did not intend to sue any financial advisers as part of the class action.
The main compensation to be sought for affected Suncorp Super members will effectively be a refund of the conflicted charges to members plus interest.
The proposed class action will be brought on behalf of members of the Suncorp Super Funds whose accounts have been impacted by the payment of the conflicted charges from 1 July 2013.
William Roberts Lawyers principal Bill Petrovski said the law firm has formed the view that from 1 July 2013, Suncorp Super members have been “wrongfully stripped of hard-earned monies used for the payment of commissions and other fees to financial advisers”.
“Those monies should now be repaid,” Mr Petrovski said.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
