This case study concerned group life insurance offered to members of the superannuation funds of AMP Superannuation Limited (AMP Super) and NM Superannuation Proprietary Limited (NM Super), the AMP Group’s superannuation trustees. AMP Life Limited (AMP Life) is the group life insurer for all AMP Super funds and for some of NM Super’s funds.[1]
AMP Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of AMP Limited, is the group life insurer for most members of the trustees’ funds.[2] It is also the administrator of all of AMP Super’s funds, and some of NM Super’s funds;[3] an arrangement Mr Paul Sainsbury, Group Executive, Wealth Solutions and Customer, for the AMP Group said had existed for ‘a very long time’.[4]
As was seen in previous rounds of hearings, AMP Life is also the trustee’s investment manager[5] and members’ funds are invested through policies issued through AMP Life.[6]
Mr Sainsbury said that one of AMP Life’s responsibilities as administrator of the trustees’ funds was to undertake ‘assessments of potential insurers’, recommend replacement insurance arrangements and assist the trustees to ‘negotiate the terms and appointment with the preferred insurer’ and to ensure compliance with Prudential Standard SPS 250, Insurance in Superannuation.[7] That Prudential Standard requires, amongst other things, that a trustee be able to satisfy itself, and demonstrate to APRA, that the engagement of the insurer is conducted at arm’s length and is in the best interests of beneficiaries.[8]
Mr Sainsbury was asked about the suitability of AMP Life to undertake tasks connected with the selection of the group life insurer and the assessment of the appropriateness of those arrangements as required by Prudential Standard SPS 250. Mr Sainsbury did not accept that a conflict arose by AMP Life undertaking the task of assessing and recommending its potential competitors.[9] He said that there was sufficient separation of roles within AMP Life to satisfy the requirements of Prudential Standard SPS 250.[10]
This issue was not directed at actual or potential misconduct by AMP Super or AMP Life, but rather to the adequacy of the current regulatory regime. It was not immediately clear how the AMP trustees could satisfy APRA that the arrangement with AMP Life was at arm’s length. Indeed, Mr Sainsbury said that tenders for the provision of group life insurance to the members of the trustees’ funds do not occur.[11]
Counsel Assisting posed a number of policy questions connected with the engagement of associated entities as group life insurers after the hearing. I have considered those questions in the chapter of Volume 1 of this Report that deals with the superannuation sector.
[1]Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5861.
[2]Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5861.
[3]Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5861.
[4]Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5863–4.
[5]To the extent it has not outsourced that role to another related party within the AMP Group.
[6]Exhibit 6.486, 3 October 2017, [SIGNED] ART Financial Report 30 June 2017 Final 20170927.pdf, 15; Exhibit 5.434, 3 October 2017, [SIGNED] SST Financial Report 30 June 2017 Final 20170927.pdf, 21; Exhibit 6.487, 3 October 2017, [SIGNED] NMRF Financial Report 30 June 2017 Final 20170927.pdf, 15; Exhibit 6.488, 3 October 2017, [SIGNED] ProSuper Financial Report 30 June 2017 Final 20170927.PDF, 7; Exhibit 5.435, 3 October 2017, [SIGNED] SDF Financial Report 30 June 2017 Final 20170927.pdf, 16.
[7] Exhibit 6.233, Witness statement of Paul Sainsbury, 10 September 2018, 17 [67].
[8] Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5862; Exhibit 6.235, 15 November 2012, APRA, Prudential Standard SPS 250, 15 November 2012, 6 [23].
[9] Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5863.
[10] Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5863.
[11] Transcript, Paul Sainsbury, 17 September 2018, 5864.