Professional designated services

If you’re a lawyer, accountant, conveyancer, insolvency practitioner, financial adviser or other business that provides professional services, learn what new designated services we’ll regulate.

Designated services

This guidance provides an overview of the new designated services listed under table 6 of subsection 6(5B) to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006(the Act).

These professional services include:

• assisting in the planning or execution of a transaction to sell, buy or transfer real estate (item 1)
• assisting in the planning or execution of a transaction to sell, buy or transfer a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 2)
• receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property to help in the planning or execution of a transaction (item 3)
• assisting in organising, planning, or executing a transaction for equity or debt financing relating to a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 4)
• selling or transferring a shelf company (item 5)
• assisting in the planning or execution of the creation or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 6)
• acting, or arranging for someone to act on behalf of a person in particular positions in a body corporate or legal arrangement (items 7–8)
• providing a registered office address or principal place of business address of a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 9).

Whether your business has anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations depends on the services you provide. These are known as designated services.

If your business provides one or more designated services that have a geographical link to Australia, you have AML/CTF obligations.

In certain circumstances, businesses providing professional services are exempt from AML/CTF obligations. Exemptions exist for a range of service providers, including legal aid commissions, community legal centres and barristers acting for Australian government bodies.

Learn more about exemptions from AML/CTF obligations.

The impact of being regulated

If you provide any of these designated services, you must comply with the Act and Rules from this date.

This means you’ll need to enrol with us and meet your AML/CTF obligations.

You must also complete necessary steps to know your customer before you start to provide them with a designated service. Learn more at initial customer due diligence.

We’ve developed this guidance to help you meet these obligations.

Key terms and principles

This section helps you determine if you’re providing a professional designated service by setting out our interpretation of key terms. This includes information on when a service may be:

• assisting or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person when providing professional services covered by items 1–4 and 6
• provided in relation to a matter in table 6 (all items)
• provided to a customer in table 6 (all items)
• provided in the course of carrying on a business (all items)
• not pursuant to or resulting from a court or tribunal order (items 1–2)
• related to a body corporate or legal arrangement (items 2, 4–5, 6–9)
• real estate (item 1)

Assisting or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person when providing the professional services covered by items 1–4 and 6

We consider ‘assisting’ and ‘otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person’ as separate actions. A designated service can arise if you either ‘assist’ or ‘otherwise act’ for a client in certain circumstances.

The terms ‘planning’ and ‘organising’ extend to preliminary and preparatory steps that directly advance the outcome specified in the designated service, such as a transaction. This includes, for example, preparing a contract for the sale of real estate when the seller and buyer have agreed to the sale price of the property.

‘Assisting’, ‘planning’, ‘organising’ or ‘otherwise acting for on behalf of a person’ will only be regulated under table 6 when it’s sufficiently linked to the outcome of the designated service, which includes any of the following:

• [a transaction to sell, buy or otherwise transfer real estate (item 1)](#Assisting to plan or execute a transaction to buy, sell or transfer real estate)
• [a transaction to sell, buy or otherwise transfer a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 2)](#Selling, buying or transferring a legal arrangement or body corporate)
• [receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property as part of a transaction (item 3)](#Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property)
• [a transaction for equity or debt financing for a body corporate or legal arrangement (or proposed body corporate or legal arrangement) (item 4)](#Equity or debt financing for a body corporate or legal arrangement)
• [creation or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 6)](#Creating or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement)

In general, being connected to a transaction or outcome isn’t enough. Your service must involve active steps that move the transaction or outcome forward.

To be sufficiently linked to the outcome of the relevant designated service, the following principles must be met. These principles determine who is regulated and when regulatory obligations are triggered.

• who: a person whose assistance to a customer directly advances a relevant transaction or a creation or restructure of a body corporate or a legal arrangement. Merely influencing how the customer proceeds, providing general advice or ancillary services isn’t sufficient.
• when: a person starts to provide one of the designated services when they act on instructions and directly advance a relevant transaction or the creation or restructure of a body corporate or a legal arrangement. This will typically be when two or more parties to a transaction exist or when preparatory steps are taken to create or restructure a corporate body or legal arrangement.

These principles ensure that the scope of regulation is confined to:

• professional services that generate money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing risks (we refer to these as ML/TF risks)
• the ML/TF risks that table 6 aims to address (for example, a conveyancer engaged to transfer real property), not ancillary services that may merely influence them (for example, a solicitor engaged to provide the conveyancer with advice on the legal effect of terms in a contract for sale)
• preparatory steps to provide services in relation to an outcome, but not outcomes that are merely hypothetical or remote.

Example: Financial adviser arranging for a solicitor to create a trust

A financial adviser is approached by a customer seeking to establish a self-managed super fund (SMSF). It can only be established by setting up an underlying trust.

The financial adviser:

• provides financial advice on the benefits of an SMSF and an investment strategy for the SMSF
• explains the steps the person needs to take to set up a SMSF, including general advice on the steps needed to create a trust
• recommends the client engage a solicitor to prepare the trust deed.

The client agrees to the financial adviser's recommendations. The financial adviser introduces the client to a solicitor and instructs the solicitor to set up the trust.

The financial adviser then:

• reviews the trust deed to make sure it implements the financial advice provided to the client and recommends possible amendments to the solicitor
• arranges for the transfer of funds from an existing fund to the SMSF. This just involves helping the client complete the rollover forms required
• assists clients by arranging SMSF investments. This just involves the financial adviser helping the client to fill in the application form.

The financial adviser’s conduct both:

• constitutes ‘making arrangements’ in the capacity of a holder of an Australian financial services licence for a person to receive a designated service (item 54 of table 1)
• doesn’t constitute a designated service under table 6.

Financial adviser not providing table 6 designated services

Item 3 of table 6 (holding a person’s money to assist in a transaction) doesn’t apply to the financial adviser. At no point does the financial adviser receive, hold, control or manage the funds in the client’s existing superannuation fund or the SMSF (the trustees of these superannuation funds control or manage these funds).

The financial adviser doesn’t have authority to initiate, approve, delay or redirect any transfer of the client’s money or property, as they’re only assisting the client to complete required paperwork.

Item 6 of table 6 (assisting in the creation or restructure of the trust):

• applies to the solicitor who made the trust. Drafting and facilitating the execution of the trust deed directly advances the creation of the trust, which is the outcome under item 6. The solicitor starts providing a designated service once they accept the client’s instruction to create the trust and act upon them.
• doesn’t apply to the financial adviser. The actions of the financial adviser only influenced the creation of the trust, rather than directly advance it. The general advice they provided on the creation of the trust wasn’t sufficient to allow the client to create the trust themselves.

It’s important to note, however, that the financial adviser's conduct would constitute making arrangements for another person to provide a designated service under item 54 of table 1 to section 6 of the Act.

When the financial adviser would provide table 6 designated services

If the financial adviser decided to do any of the following, they would be providing a designated service in item 6 of table 6:

• take steps to directly create the trust, including acting on instructions to draft the trust deed and draw up relevant paperwork to appoint trustees and assign beneficiaries
• provide advice on the creation of the trust that’s comprehensive enough to allow their client to create the trust independent of any further professional assistance.

Activities related to providing a table 6 designated service (all items)

AML/CTF obligations apply if you provide a designated service in table 6 from 1 July 2026.

Whether your activities relate to providing a table 6 designated service depends on the facts of each case.

Table 6 designated services are generally expressed as services which apply currently or ‘prospectively’. Meaning they apply in relation to matters that are in progress or will occur in the future.

For example:

• drafting or reviewing documentation to create a body corporate would be regulated under item 6 of table 6
• following the creation of the body corporate, advising on whether the creation was lawful wouldn’t be regulated, because such advice doesn’t relate to the creation or restructuring of that body corporate that’s in progress or will occur in the future.

Example: notaries providing professional services

Notaries often provide services such as:

• certifying or verifying documents
• preparing notarial certificates
• administering oaths or powers of attorney for individuals.

On their own, these services don’t directly advance either a transaction, the creation or restructure of a body corporate or legal arrangement or otherwise meet the elements of a professional designated service. If a notary only provides these services, they don’t provide any designated services.

However, a notary may provide other professional services that are designated services. For example, a notary may be providing a designated service if they do any of the following:

• draft contracts for the sale or transfer of real estate (item 1)
• prepare a power of attorney for a body corporate or legal arrangement (item 7).

These services are captured as designated services regardless of whether they’re provided by a notary, a legal practitioner or another type of professional service provider.

If a notary provides a designated service, AML/CTF obligations will apply when they start to provide that service.

Provided to a customer in table 6 (all items)

This section refers to the Act sections 5, 6(1) and s6(6A).

If you provide a designated service, your customer (for the purpose of the Act) will be the person identified in the column of table 6 titled ‘customer of the designated service’.

The facts of each case will determine who your customer is.

We’ll regulate businesses that provide services to an external customer who is a separate legal person to the business. You’re also not providing a designated service where you provide the service to a member in your business group.

Learn more about reporting groups.

Provided in the course of carrying on a business (all items)

This section refers to the Act section 5.

A service is only a designated service under table 6 if it’s provided ‘in the course of carrying on a business’.

A business is a venture or concern in trade or commerce, whether or not conducted on a regular, repetitive or continuous basis.

We consider this to mean that a service can be provided in the course of business even if the service is any of the following:

• not the only service provided by the business
• only provided once.

The term ‘in trade or commerce’ includes operations of a commercial character. Indicators of operations of a commercial character include organising activities in a business-like manner, the keeping of books and records, and the use of a system to keep books or records.

We consider that a service will be provided in the course of a business where it’s provided by a business for a fee or for free to otherwise further that business. This is important as the fact that a person is receiving a service for free, or at a reduced price, will not necessarily lower the ML/TF risk of providing the service.

As table 6 is profession neutral, this applies regardless to the type of business in question.

Not pursuant to or resulting from a court or tribunal order (items 1 and 2)

Items 1 and 2 of table 6 provide an exception that a designated service isn’t provided where a transaction to sell, buy or transfer real estate, a body corporate or a legal arrangement is pursuant to, or resulting from, an order of a court or tribunal.

The transaction must take place to comply with or give effect to an order that has been made by a court or tribunal.

This exception will only apply to services that are carried out after the court order has been made. It doesn’t apply to services that are provided to obtain a court or tribunal order, if those services fall within the scope of table 6.

This exception has the effect of excluding, for example, the transfer of real estate, a body corporate or a legal arrangement:

• from a deceased estate following a court‑ordered grant of probate or letters of administration
• under family law consent orders or other court‑ordered property settlement outcomes.

Litigation generally won’t fall under the scope of table 6, as it’s:

• unlikely to constitute assistance to the client that directly advances a relevant transaction
• likely to relate only to determining legal questions on matters that have already occurred, not matters that are in progress or will occur in the future.

Example: lawyer helping client claim rights over a real estate transaction

A law firm is assisting a client to take steps to dissolve a marriage. As part of this service, the law firm provides advice to the husband in relation to real estate that was purchased during their marriage.

They’re not providing a designated service under item 1 of table 6 (transaction to transfer property) as there is no ongoing or future transaction. The only relevant transaction (to originally purchase the property) has already been completed.

The law firm, following mediation between the parties, drafts a consent order to settle the ongoing litigation. This includes provisions related to the transfer of real estate to their client following the dissolution of the marriage.

This is also not a designated service under item 1 of table 6, as all of the following apply:

• there’s no transaction at this point
• this doesn’t directly advance the planning of a transaction to transfer real estate
• only influences a possible future conveyancing process (which would directly advance this transaction) by determining the legal rights of the parties to the real estate.

If the consent order is made by a court, the transfer of the property by a conveyancer pursuant to this order isn’t providing a designated service.

If no court or tribunal order was made, and the property was instead transferred to their client pursuant to a binding financial agreement agreed by the parties, then:

• if the law firm provides work in drafting and executing the binding financial agreement, this wouldn’t be regulated, as this isn't performed in connection to a transaction
• the law firm's conveyancing service to directly advance the transfer of the property pursuant to the agreement would be regulated under item 1 of table 6.

Body corporate or legal arrangement (items 2, 4–5, 6–9)

This section refers to the Act section 5.

Table 6 regulates certain services related to a body corporate or legal arrangement (items 2, 4 and 6–9) or shelf companies (item 5).

‘Body corporate’ refers to a person, association or group of persons legally incorporated into a corporation. This includes a shelf company, which is a company that has been registered with Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) but hasn’t traded or engaged in any business activity, and doesn’t have any assets or liabilities.

Legal arrangement means any of the following:

• an express trust
• a partnership
• a joint venture
• an unincorporated association
• an arrangement, including a foreign arrangement such as a fiducie, treuhand or fideicomiso, similar to an arrangement mentioned above.

An express trust includes a trust expressly or intentionally created in writing by a settlor. This doesn’t include trusts created solely by operation of law (not in writing) and explicitly doesn’t include a testamentary trust.

This means that the drafting of a will, and the subsequent creation of a testamentary trust, won’t constitute a designated service under items 2, 4–5 and 6–9.

Real estate (item 1)

This section refers to the Act section 5 and the Explanatory Memorandum paragraphs 303, 305 and 306.

The term ‘real estate’ covers real property ownership and some ownership-like leases. It refers to an interest in land within Australia where a person (including both individuals and non-individual persons) has any of the following:

• ‘fee simple interest’ – which is the usual form of land ownership in most of Australia
• leasehold interest of more than 30 years (excluding options for renewal, extension or further terms)
• land use entitlement – an entitlement to occupy land conferred through ownership of shares in a company, or units in a unit trust scheme, or a combination of a shareholding or ownership of units together with a lease or licence.

Examples include:

• 99-year leases in the Australian Capital Territory
• crown and pastoral leases
• residential site agreements where the interest in that land is longer than 30 years (excluding options for renewal, extension or further terms).

‘Real estate’ also covers an interest, estate, right or entitlement in land in a foreign country that’s equivalent to one of the above interests or otherwise confers ownership rights. While the ‘real estate’ can be located in a foreign country, you'll only have obligations under the Act if the designated service has a geographical link to Australia.

Designated services relating to real estate regulate the sale, purchase and transfer of these interests whether or not there was any payment or other consideration involved in the transfer. For example, a conveyancer who assists a parent to transfer ownership of the family home to their child without consideration will provide a designated service.

Exclusions from definition of real estate

This section refers to the Explanatory Memorandum paragraph 306.

The definition of real estate excludes interests such as:

• leases of 30 years or less (excluding options for renewal, extension or further terms)
• incorporeal hereditaments. For example, easements and restrictive covenants
• mortgagee interests
• dwellings not attached to land, where the resident owns the dwelling but leases the land on which the dwelling is located such. Such as caravan parks and some retirement villages.

This means that a business involved in the sale, purchase and transfer of these interests won’t be providing a designated service relating to real estate.

For example, a person may own a mobile home (such as a caravan) but only have a lease that’s less than 30 years over the land on which the home is situated. In this situation, neither the caravan nor the lease of land qualifies as real estate, as the caravan is treated as a chattel under law and the lease is too short.

Real estate, as defined by the Act, doesn't include arrangements that only give a person limited contractual permission to occupy premises. For example, a standalone licence to occupy.

To determine if an arrangement is real estate, don’t rely only on the title of a written agreement. Consider all the legal and practical rights the arrangement gives the occupant.

Feature	Standalone licence to occupy	Leasehold interest
Can grant interest in land	No	Yes
Exclusive possession	Usually no	Usually yes
Can be registered on title	No	Yes, subject to requirements under state or territory law
Rights	Contractual	Contractual but can create an independent interest in land

For example, a resident may pay a contribution to a retirement village operator and enter a standalone licence to occupy agreement. Under the agreement:

• the resident may live in the unit while the agreement remains in force
• the resident’s name isn’t recorded on the property title.
• the resident can’t sell, transfer or sublet the unit
• the resident doesn’t have rights over the unit from shares in a company or units in a unit trust (this could make the licence a land use entitlement, which is real estate)
• the operator retains rights to enter, manage or control the unit in certain circumstances.

On these facts alone, this type of arrangement would not be real estate as defined by the Act. This is because the resident has limited contractual rights to occupy the unit. Services relating only to this licence wouldn’t be real estate designated services.

Assisting to plan or execute a transaction to buy, sell or transfer real estate

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
1	assisting a person in the planning or execution of a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, to sell, buy or otherwise transfer real estate, where: (a) the service is provided in the course of carrying on a business; and (b) the sale, purchase or other transfer is not pursuant to, or resulting from, an order of a court or tribunal	the person

Designated services

This section refers to the Act section 6(5B).

Activities that directly advance a transaction include where you plan, execute or act for your client in a transaction for the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate from one person to another. The designated service includes both the execution and planning of this transaction.

Activities that fall under this designated service include the typical steps taken in the conveyancing process to transfer real property from one person to another, such as any of the following:

• preparing, reviewing or lodging the contract of sale and transfer of land instrument
• researching property titles, strata documents, or land use specifications
• coordinating with financial institutions regarding payments and discharge of mortgage for the real estate transfer
• holding funds on behalf of a buyer and disbursing trust funds at settlement, or organising for release of deposit to the seller
• preparing for financial settlement
• preparing documents to be provided to a registry authority for transfer of real estate on behalf of a client.

These activities can start to be a designated service depending on when they occur.

Starting to provide a designated service

A person starts providing the designated service when they act on instructions in relation to a transaction to buy, sell or transfer property and a relevant transaction exists.

A transaction will typically exist when there is at least one buyer and one seller (they don’t need to be specifically identified) and from the point that either:

• in a private treaty or where an auction doesn’t meet reserve, when a buyer and seller, verbally or in writing, agree to the sale price of the property prior to the payment of any deposit or the exchange of any contracts
• in an auction that meets reserve, at the point a buyer is successful at auction.

While conveyancers would ordinarily need to complete their initial customer due diligence (CDD) obligations before they start to provide a designated service, they can delay this process if required. This includes where it's essential to delay initial CDD to avoid interrupting the ordinary course of business and there’s a low additional risk of ML/TF occurring.

Learn more about delayed initial customer due diligence.

Example: conveyancer services

A conveyancing firm provides a potential client with general advice on the process for buying real estate. They accept instructions to act for the client and draw up a draft contract for sale.

There is no real estate transaction at this point, so the designated service hasn’t started.

The buyer is successful at an auction, making an offer that’s above reserve. The conveyancing firm will start to provide a designated service at this point.

Before settlement, the buyer expresses regret in buying the real estate and instructs the following businesses to provide additional services:

• an accounting firm provides financial advice on the implications of pulling out of the settlement process
• a law firm provides advice on the legal consequences of pulling out of the settlement process.

While these services may influence whether or not the transaction will proceed, they don’t directly advance this transaction (this is done through the conveyancing process) and so won’t be regulated under item 1 of table 6.

Town agent services

A person may be engaged to act as a town agent at a settlement on behalf of another reporting entity (typically a conveyancing firm) who is acting for a client to transfer property.

In these circumstances the town agent is an agent of the reporting entity and is providing designated services in this capacity.

This means that the person or business who engaged the town agent (typically the conveyancer) is the reporting entity, not the town agent. This reporting entity must make sure the town agent complies with the AML/CTF policies of the reporting entity and comply with AML/CTF obligations when engaging the town agent.

This includes the reporting entity doing all of the following:

• conducting appropriate personnel due diligence on the town agent
• providing training to the town agent or checking to see that training has previously been provided, that’s relevant to the services they’ll provide in their capacity as an agent as a part of the designated service.

Selling, buying or transferring a legal arrangement or body corporate

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Designated service	Customer of the designated service
2	assisting a person in the planning or execution of a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, to sell, buy or otherwise transfer a body corporate or legal arrangement, where both: - the service is provided in the course of carrying on a business - the sale, purchase or other transfer is not pursuant to, or resulting from, an order of a court or tribunal	the person

A body corporate includes any legally incorporated entity that has legal personality. For example, it can own property and sue or be sued in its own right. This includes all of the following:

• companies
• incorporated associations
• incorporated limited partnerships
• corporations sole.

A legal arrangement is an entity that doesn’t have legal personality, and includes all of the following:

• express trusts
• general partnerships
• joint ventures
• unincorporated associations
• foreign equivalents.

It doesn’t matter if any of the following occur:

• the entity or structure is a body corporate or other legal arrangement
• it’s transferred for value or not.

This only applies where the sale, purchase or transfer relates to a controlling interest in the body corporate or legal arrangement.

Example: accountant providing tax advice

An accounting firm provides tax advice to a client on the implications of selling a body corporate. While potentially influential to the client deciding whether to sell the body corporate, it doesn’t directly advance any related transaction and there isn’t a transaction at this point.

If it's clear there is one buyer, and the firm is instructed to act for the client to sell the body corporate to a buyer, the designated service begins from this point.

If there are many potential buyers that have been identified, the designated service would begin when negotiations begin with one or more potential buyers.

The preparatory steps taken by the firm to assist in the sale of the body corporate will be regulated, including:

• representing the customer in negotiations for the sale
• preparing or reviewing contracts for sale
• conducting due diligence, valuation of assets and liabilities in anticipation for the sale
• obtaining Foreign Investment Review Board approvals, and Australian Securities Exchange and ASIC waivers for clients
• preparing for financial settlement
• preparing documents to be provided to an authority (such as ASIC) for the transfer of the body corporate.

These steps go directly to advancing the outcome of the designated service in item 2, namely assisting in a transaction for the sale of the body corporate.

Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person’s property

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Designated service	Customer of the designated service
3	receiving, holding and controlling (including disbursing) or managing a person’s - money - accounts - securities and securities accounts - virtual assets, or - other property as part of assisting the person in the planning or execution of a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, in the course of carrying on a business (other than in a circumstance covered by subsection (5C))	the person

Scope of the designated service

You’re providing an item 3 designated service where all the following apply:

1. You either:
   1. receive, hold and control (including disburses) a person’s money, accounts, securities and securities accounts, virtual assets or other property (referred to as money or other property)
   2. manage a person’s money or other property
2. This happens as part of assisting the person in planning or executing a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, and your actions directly advance the transaction (rather than merely influencing it)
3. The service is provided in the course of carrying on a business
4. None of the circumstances in subsection 6(5C) apply (see Exemptions from the item 3 designated service below).

Assistance that merely influences a transaction, without directly advancing it, does not on its own constitute an item 3 designated service.

How item 3 applies to money or other property

The item 3 designated service applies when dealing with money or other property in two separate ways:

• receiving, holding and controlling (including disbursing)
• managing.

Receiving, holding and controlling (including disbursing) money or other property

Receiving, holding and controlling should be read together as a composite concept.

This covers situations where you receive and hold a person’s money or other property and control when and where it’s disbursed as part of directly advancing a transaction. For example, this may include where you receive and hold your client’s funds within your trust account on your client’s behalf, where you have control over the disbursement of those funds.

If you can influence or direct a transfer but don’t directly receive or hold and control the money or other property, this may be more consistent with ‘managing’ as described below (depending on whether the business has authority and discretion).

Example: accountant receiving funds and paying a client’s bills on their behalf

An accounting practice provides services to the owner of a small business as their client. Outside of preparing accounts and tax returns, the client asks the accounting business to pay a number of the client’s expenses on their behalf, including a business lease payment and school fees for a family member.

The client transfers money to the accounting practice’s bank account. The accounting practice then uses those funds to pay the lease provider and the school on the owner’s instructions.

In this scenario, the accounting practice is likely to be receiving, holding and controlling their client’s money. The business receives the funds directly to their bank account, holds them for a period, and controls their disbursement to third parties. The accounting practice is acting as an intermediary in transactions the owner could have carried out directly.

As a result, the accounting practice would be providing a designated service under item 3, unless an exemption in subsection 6(5C) applies.

Managing money or other property

Managing involves deciding, administering or directing how a person’s money or property is dealt with. You don’t need to have received or held the money or property for this condition to apply.

You are more likely to be managing a person’s money or other property where you have authority and discretion to decide what should happen to that money or other property.

Managing is more likely where a business, through its authority or discretion, can:

• decide whether to make a payment
• materially change who is paid or what is transferred
• redirect funds, substitute parties, or materially vary the purpose of a dealing.

A business is less likely to be managing where its role is confined to transmitting or implementing fixed or pre-determined, binding instructions (including routine payment administration arising from pre-existing legal, contractual or employment obligations), and it does not have authority or discretion to redirect funds, substitute beneficiaries, or materially vary the purpose of the dealing.

Example: wealth management business managing client investments

A wealth management business provides investment management services to retail clients. As part of an ongoing engagement, a client gives the business authority to make investment decisions on the client’s behalf within agreed investment principles. Under this authority, the business can decide when to buy or sell investments held in the client’s portfolio and can instruct third parties to carry out those decisions.

In this scenario, the wealth management business is likely to be managing the client’s securities because it is exercising authority and discretion to determine how the client’s securities are dealt with and is directly advancing transactions involving that securities.

By contrast, the wealth management business is less likely to be managing the client’s securities where it is only given a specific, binding instruction to execute a particular transfer or dealing, and the business has no discretion to change the payee, amount, timing, conditions or purpose of the dealing. For example, executing a client-directed transfer of a fixed amount from one account to another account.

Who is the customer?

The customer is the person you’re providing the professional service to. Specifically, it’s the person you’re directly assisting or acting on behalf of in relation to the transaction.

A person doesn’t become the customer of a designated service simply because their money passes through your account as part of a transaction in which you are acting for someone else.

For example, if you are holding money on escrow to be paid under a contractual agreement, your customer is your direct client, not the counterparty who originally paid the money to you.

Exemptions from the Item 3 designated service

This section refers to the Act sections 6(5C) and 6(5D) and Chapter 2 of the Exemption Rules.

Item 3 doesn’t apply in the circumstances covered by subsection 6(5C) of the Act. These circumstances explain when receiving, holding or controlling, or managing, a person’s money or other property is an item 3 designated service.

You aren’t providing item 3 if any of the following apply:

• Payment for goods or services (6(5C)(a)): the money or other property is payment for goods or services you provide
• Payments reasonably incidental to a non-designated service (6(5C)(b)): you don’t provide any designated services other than item 3, and the money or other property being held or managed is for payments reasonably incidental to providing a service that isn’t a designated service
• Court or tribunal orders (6(5C)(c)): the money or other property is to be received or payable under an order of a court or tribunal
• Certain payments in subsection 6(5D) (6(5C)(d)): the service is the receipt or disbursement of a payment mentioned in subsection 6(5D) (see below)
• The service is any other designated service (6(5C)(e)): the same conduct is covered by another designated service
• A circumstance specified in the AML/CTF Rules (6(5C)(f)): the AML/CTF Rules specify a circumstance where item 3 doesn’t apply (see below).

Payments that are excluded from item 3 – subsection 6(5D)

For paragraph 6(5C)(d), item 3 does not apply where you receive or disburse money or other property as a payment to or from any of the following:

• a government body
• a court or tribunal of the Commonwealth, a State, a Territory or a foreign country
• a public international organisation
• a person licensed under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law to provide insurance (including self-insured licensees).

This can include payments such as:

• court filing fees or fees paid to Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) for filings, applications or exemptions
• bail payments made to a court or tribunal, including payments made by a surety through a legal practitioner’s trust account
• tax payments made to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
• compensation paid by an insurer to a client through a law practice’s trust account

Payments reasonably incidental to providing a service that isn’t a designated service – paragraph 6(5C)(b)

Paragraph 6(5C)(b) is intended to prevent businesses that provide non-designated services from becoming regulated only because they handle client money for routine, ancillary payments that support those non-designated services.

To qualify, both of the following must apply:

• the business doesn’t provide any designated services other than item 3
• the money or other property being held or managed is for payments reasonably incidental to providing a service that is not a designated service.

This exemption applies at the business level. You must consider all services provided by the same entity, including across different practice areas, rather than treating each practice area as a separate business.

This exemption doesn’t apply if a client is using your trust account as a de facto bank account (that is, the funds are not being held only for incidental payments connected to your non-designated services).

Example: litigation practice holding settlement funds in escrow

A legal practice provides litigation advocacy services. The practice does not provide any designated services other than services that could otherwise be captured by item 3.

As part of representing clients in litigation matters, the practice receives settlement funds into its trust account under privately negotiated settlement agreements. These settlements are typically reached without a court order. The practice holds the funds in escrow and releases them to its client when the conditions in the settlement agreement are met.

In this scenario, the practice is receiving, holding and controlling the client’s money. However, the funds are held only to support the provision of the practice’s litigation advocacy services, which are not designated services. The receipt, holding and disbursement of the settlement funds are reasonably incidental to providing those non‑designated services.

Because the practice does not provide any designated services other than item 3, this activity is likely to fall within the exemption in paragraph 6(5C)(b).

If the practice also provides other designated services (for example, real estate conveyancing), this exemption would not apply. In that case, the practice must consider whether holding and disbursing settlement funds constitutes a designated service under item 3 based on all the circumstances.

Example: bookkeeper processing routine payments from a client’s business account

A bookkeeping practice has authority to access a client’s business bank account to perform routine monthly activities such as processing payroll, paying supplier invoices, paying rent and utilities, making routine loan repayments, and remitting GST and PAYG to the ATO. The bookkeeper processes these payments in accordance with fixed client instructions and pre-existing contractual, employment or legal obligations, and does not have discretion to redirect funds, substitute beneficiaries, or materially vary the purpose of the payments.

In this scenario, the bookkeeping practice is less likely to be managing the client’s money for the purposes of item 3, because it is implementing pre-determined obligations and does not have substantive discretion over the disposition of the funds.

Even if the bookkeeping practice is receiving, holding or controlling, or managing, money or property to directly advance a transaction, they would generally be doing so in a way that is reasonably incidental to their bookkeeping services. If they do not provide any other designated services (such as business address services under item 9 or arranging for a person to act in a role in a body corporate or legal arrangement under item 7) these incidental dealings would be covered by the exception in paragraph 6(5C)(b).

Circumstances specified in the AML/CTF Rules – paragraph 6(5C)(f)

The AML/CTF Rules specify circumstances where item 3 does not apply. For example, the Rules specify that item 3 does not apply where a real estate agency manages rental income and expenses through its trust account.

Equity or debt financing for a body corporate or legal arrangement

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
4	assisting a person in organising, planning or executing a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, for equity or debt financing relating to: - a body corporate (or proposed body corporate) or - a legal arrangement (or proposed legal arrangement) in the course of carrying on a business	the person

It doesn’t matter if the body corporate or legal arrangement is in existence or only at some stage of formation (see the word ‘proposed’ in the designated service).

The transaction must be for equity or debt financing. This includes all capital and debt raising methods.

Examples of capital and debt raising methods include any of the following:

• equity capital raising. Such as initial public offerings, venture capital, share purchase plans, rights issues and block trades
• debt financing. Such as secured or unsecured bonds, bills or notes, asset financing, loans (including government loans) and debentures.

The funds raised by the transaction must be able to be paid to the body corporate or legal arrangement, or to be held in trust on behalf of the body corporate or legal arrangement.

Example: business consultant providing general advice

A business consultant is approached by a customer who asks about the steps to fund a startup company (a body corporate).

The consultant provides general advice about various financing options, including equity and debt financing, but doesn’t directly assist in organising, planning or executing a specific financing transaction.

At this point, the consultant isn’t providing a designated service under item 4, as:

• there’s no transaction at this point
• they’re not directly advancing a transaction to secure equity and debt financing for the company.

The customer then identifies several potential investors who are likely to fund the start-up company. The customer retains the business consultant to lead the process to secure equity and debt financing from them.

The consultant starts providing a designated service when they accept and act on the customer’s instructions. The subsequent acts of negotiating, structuring and executing a financing deal or the drafting of debt or equity finance documents will all be captured by the designated service.

The consultant organises a third-party credit rating agency to credit rate the company. The credit rating agency isn’t providing a designated service as its credit rating service influences but doesn’t directly advance the transaction.

Selling or transferring a shelf company

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
5	selling or transferring a shelf company, in the course of carrying on a business	the buyer or transferee

This complements other designated services, such as:

• assisting, or otherwise acting for on behalf of, a person to plan or execute a transaction to buy, sell or transfer a shelf company (item 2)
• assisting a person to plan or execute, or otherwise acting on behalf of a person in, the creation or restructuring of a shelf company (item 6).

The customer of the designated service is the buyer or transferee of the shelf company.

Creating or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement

This section refers to the Act section 6 and Explanatory Memorandum paragraphs 380–382.

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
6	assisting a person to plan or execute, or otherwise acting on behalf of a person in, the creation or restructuring of either: - a body corporate (other than a corporation under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006) - a legal arrangement in the course of carrying on a business	the person and either: - if the body corporate is a company and the service is creating the company—the beneficial owners and directors of the company - if the legal arrangement is an express trust and the service is creating the express trust—the trustee, settlor and beneficiaries of the trust

For the purposes of item 6 of table 6, restructuring refers to changing the legal form of the body corporate or legal arrangement. This includes altering the legal structure of a body corporate or legal arrangement through a merger or demerger.

Restructuring doesn’t extend to aspects of the body corporate or legal arrangement that are unrelated to its legal form, such as its:

• organisational staffing profile
• IT systems
• debt restructuring for small businesses under the Corporations Act 2001. Although the debt and equity financing designated service (item 4 of table 6) may separately apply to some debt restructuring scenarios.

It doesn’t include services related to the creation or restructuring of any of the following:

• testamentary trusts or trusts that aren’t created intentionally or in writing. Such as trusts created solely by operation of law
• corporations under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006.

The nature of the service you provide will determine who your customer is. Your customer is the person providing you with instructions for any of the following:

• the creation or restructuring of a body corporate that’s a company – the proposed beneficial owners and directors of the company
• the creation of an express trust – the proposed trustee, proposed settlor and proposed beneficiaries of the trust.

This designated service also extends to preparatory steps you take that are required in anticipation of creating a body corporate or legal arrangement including any of the following:

• drafting, reviewing and negotiating corporate agreements and business documents. For example, company constitutions, partnership agreements, shareholders agreements, documents creating corporate trustees and personal insolvency agreements
• drafting and reviewing trust deeds and documents. For example, preparing a deed for a discretionary trust, a bare trust or other asset protection arrangements using legal structures
• drafting, reviewing and negotiating documents to support a customer’s mergers and demergers, as well as proposed mergers and demergers
• registering applications and forms with ASIC. For example, to register a company or a business name
• obtaining Foreign Investment Review Board approvals and ASX and ASIC waivers for clients
• conducting due diligence on accounts and finances for corporate financial transactions prior to a transaction.

Examples: insolvency practitioner helping restructure a company

An insolvency practitioner changing a company limited by guarantee into a company limited by shares, splitting one body corporate into multiple bodies corporate or merging multiple bodies corporate are examples of a restructure. The insolvency practitioner would be helping their client to directly advance the restructure of a body corporate.

An insolvency practitioner that assists a body corporate to restructure its internal governance and business operations, including reducing staff numbers at a particular plant or focusing on producing more profitable product lines, isn’t providing a designated service as this doesn’t change the legal structure of the body corporate.

Acting on behalf of a person or as a nominee shareholder in a body corporate or legal arrangement

This section refers to the Act sections 5 and 6.

You’re providing this designated service if you’re:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
7	acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, any of the following, on behalf of a person (the nominator), in the course of carrying on a business: - a director or secretary of a company - a power of attorney of a body corporate or legal arrangement - a partner in a partnership - a trustee of an express trust - a position in any other legal arrangement that is functionally equivalent to a position mentioned in any of the above paragraphs other than in a circumstance covered by subsection (5E)	the nominator
8	acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a nominee shareholder of a body corporate or legal arrangement, on behalf of a person (the nominator), in the course of carrying on a business	the nominator

Acting or arranging for a person to act in certain positions

You’re providing a designated service under item 7 when you act as, or arrange for another person to act as, any of the following on behalf of a person:

• director or secretary of a company
• power of attorney of a body corporate or legal arrangement
• partner in a partnership
• trustee of an express trust
• position in any other legal arrangement that's functionally equivalent to a position mentioned above.

We consider that ‘any other legal arrangement’ captures arrangements that are equivalent in substance to trusts or similar structures, including foreign trust-like arrangements, where a person performs a role that’s functionally equivalent to a trustee or other listed positions.

An agency or service provider relationship, by itself, doesn’t mean that a person is acting in one of the roles covered by item 7. For example, a person acting only as a filing agent, nominee, representative or service provider to carry out administrative or procedural steps does not, by that fact alone, fall within item 7.

Item 7 is not intended to capture ordinary agent-principal relationships, including where a person acts on instructions without assuming control, authority or fiduciary responsibility equivalent to the positions listed above.

The designated service at item 7 doesn’t apply to any of the following:

• a power of attorney in relation to an individual (natural persons)
• trustees (or executors) of testamentary trusts
• trustees of trusts not created in writing
• acting, or arranging for another person to act, in a fiduciary capacity pursuant to, or as a result of, an order of a court or tribunal
• acting as the trustee of a regulated debtor’s estate (within the meaning of Schedule 2 to the Bankruptcy Act 1996).

You’re providing a designated service under item 8 when you act as, or arrange for another person to act as, a nominee shareholder of a body corporate or legal arrangement on behalf of a person.

A nominee shareholder is a person who both:

• holds shares or an interest in the body corporate or legal arrangement on behalf of another person
• exercises voting rights associated with the shares according to the instructions of the nominator or receives dividends on behalf of the nominator.

The designated services also extend to arranging for another person to act in one of these positions.

‘Acting as’ the director of a body corporate on behalf of a customer means the customer retains control over the acting director’s fulfilment of duties and responsibilities, and the acting director acts on the wishes and instructions of the customer.

We consider that this designated service includes any of the following:

• coming to an agreement or understanding for a person to act
• prepare or plan, or to make preparations for a person to act.

You’re providing a designated service when you’re making preparations, including but not limited to any of the following:

• drafting documents to authorise or make appointments to the listed positions on behalf of a customer
• identifying or introducing a person to be authorised as or appointed to the listed positions on behalf of a customer.

Who is the customer

The customer is the nominator. This is the person on whose behalf you’ll act or arrange for another person to act for.

Providing a registered office address or principal place of business

You’re providing this designated service when:

Item of Table 6	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
9	providing a registered office address or principal place of business address of a body corporate or legal arrangement, in the course of carrying on a business	the person to whom the service is provided

This designated service applies to persons who provide an address for a body corporate or legal arrangement to use as their registered office address or principal place of business.

It applies where both of the following apply:

1. You provide the address to a customer for use, or intended use, as the registered office address or principal place of business address of a body corporate or legal arrangement.
2. The body corporate or legal arrangement uses, or intends to use, this address in place of an address from which they operate their business.

You start providing this designated service when you make an address available to a customer for use, or intended use, as a registered office address or principal place of business address.

For example, where a customer intends to use the address when incorporating a company, you start providing the designated service when the address is made available to the customer, even if they haven’t yet provided the address to ASIC.

The designated service also applies to providing equivalent addresses outside Australia. It doesn’t matter whether you provide the service for a fee or free of charge.

The customer of the designated service is the person you’re providing the address to. For example, where you provide an address for a company to use as their registered office address, the company is the customer.

A customer may use this type of service:

• for privacy or commercial reasons
• because the body corporate or legal arrangement doesn’t have a physical presence in Australia.

Registered office address and principal place of business address

The terms ‘registered office address’ and ‘principal place of business address’ are commonly used in connection with company and business registration processes. They must be a physical street address, rather than a post office box (PO box).

In Australia, a company’s registered office address is the address recorded with ASIC as its registered office. It's the address ASIC and other government bodies use if they send official notices and correspondence to the company.

A principal place of business address is generally the main physical address from which a body corporate or legal arrangement operates or conducts its business.

When considering whether you provide this designated service, it's important to identify how the customer intends to use the address.

Example: use of an accounting firm’s address

An individual registers Company A with ASIC as a new online business. The individual asks an accounting firm to let Company A use the firm’s address as the company’s registered office address.

Company A operates from a separate building, which is leased to them by Company B, and doesn’t use or occupy the accounting firm’s premises.

The accounting firm makes its address available as Company A’s registered office address to use in place of the address from which Company A operates. In this scenario, the accounting firm is providing an item 9 designated service to Company A.

Company A is the customer of the designated service because it’s the person being provided with the address.

Company B is not providing an item 9 designated service to Company A, as they are providing the address from which Company A operates.

Related pages

• Accounting program starter kit
• Legal profession program starter kit
• Conveyancing program starter kit
• Check if you're regulated
• Designated services for newly regulated entities
• Real estate designated services
• Combating money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing
• Your obligations

This guidance sets out how we interpret certain Australian legislation, along with associated Rules and regulations. Australian courts are ultimately responsible for interpreting these laws and determining if any provisions of these laws are contravened.

The examples and scenarios in this guidance are meant to help explain our interpretation of these laws. They’re not exhaustive or meant to cover every possible scenario.

This guidance provides general information and isn't a substitute for legal advice. This guidance avoids legal language wherever possible and it might include generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.

Last updated:
25 Sep 2026

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