Shine Lawyers plans a new class action against AMP Life, AMP Financial Planning and two of its subsidiaries, saying clients were slugged with excessive premiums and deserve to be compensated.

Shine alleges AMP Life knew of gains made from inflated insurance sales by AMP financial advice licensees.

The law firm alleges AMP Financial Planning breached its fiduciary duty to an estimated 100,000 clients by failing to provide objective financial advice, therefore failing to act in its clients’ best interests.

Shine’s Head of Litigation & Loss Recovery Jan Saddler says it is unacceptable “that hundreds of thousands of Australians who thought they were getting objective financial advice were instead “ripped off”.

“AMP Financial Planning and its authorised representatives have breached the trust of clients who relied on their advice to make decisions about their personal insurances,” she said.

The latest case follows a series of lawsuits against AMP since the Hayne royal commission.

Shine launched an earlier class action against AMP in May 2018, which was followed by separate class actions from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Phi Finney McDonald.

In June, Slater and Gordon filed a class action on behalf of more than 2 million investors the law firm alleges paid excessive fees on their superannuation accounts.

The latest class action, which Shine says will be filed in the Federal Court of Australia soon, is open to anyone whose AMP Flexible Lifetime Policy includes death, total and permanent disability (TPD), trauma, income protection and business protection insurance which were bought from 2013 onwards on the recommendation of AMP Financial Planning, Charter Financial Planning and Hillross Financial Services.

The action claims advisers received commissions and other incentives for recommending insurance through AMP Life, while knowing their clients could obtain equivalent or better policies with lower premiums through other insurers.

“AMP has encouraged and incentivised its financial advisers to prioritise personal gain above their professional obligations,” Ms Saddler said.