AM Corporation and Lifetrack Superannuation Fund Class Action
The AM Group was established in the mid 1970s. In 1993 it launched the LifeTrack Superannuation Fund which, at its peak, managed more than $3 billion of funds in its various sub-funds.
In 1996 the Traded Policies Sub-Fund of LifeTrack was marketed as a low-risk, income paying and capital accumulating investment. Its stated objective was to provide a return of 2 % above the inflation rate. The Traded Policies Sub-Fund purchased traded policies from a company called PolicyLink.
David Rich (LifeTrack’s founder) and Alan Smith (LifeTrack’s former CEO) had interests in, and were directors of, PolicyLink and LifeTrack.
Thousands of retirees,” Mums and Dads”, invested in the Traded Policies Fund.
In 2002 the Traded Policies Fund experienced liquidity problems and investors were told by LifeTrack to expect to suffer capital losses when they withdrew their investments, and that there would be a fund restructure.
On 28 March 2003, the Fund was sold to the IOOF group.
On 19 August 2003, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) investigated the AM Pooled Superannuation Trust and LifeTrack Superannuation Fund. They obtained enforceable undertakings from David Smith and Alan Rich banning them from being a director or officer of a company holding an Australian Financial Services Licence for 10 years. Lifetrack Management was also ordered to pay $1 million to APRA.
The Maurice Blackburn Commercial class action
Maurice Blackburn Commercial is conducting a class action in the Supreme Court of New South Wales seeking damages from David Smith, Alan Rich, AM Corporation, and LifeTrack Management.
The class action alleges that the 914 named investors on whose behalf the claim is made suffered losses because of (amongst other things): mismanagement of the Fund; misrepresentations by the defendants; and breaches of duties.
Persons eligible to make a claim
This case is for the benefit of the 914 persons who are named in court documents.
If you believe that you satisfy the same criterion, and would like to participate in the class action, then we recommend that you contact a member of the AM team at Maurice Blackburn Commercial on (03) 9605 2800 to register your interest with us. Registering your interest with us does not oblige you to participate in any action or pay any legal costs but it will enable us to consider your claim(s) and whether there is any opportunity for you to participate. Separate from registration, if you sign and we accept from you our solicitor’s retainer agreement, then we will owe you the usual solicitor-client obligations.
