AML/CTF for conveyancers: obligations, settlement timing and trust money

The short version

A conveyancer who acts for a client in a transaction to sell, buy or transfer real estate provides a designated service under Table 6, item 1. Your customer is the person you act for.¹

1. Confirm your services

   Item 1 for conveyancing; item 2 if you help transfer a company or trust; item 3 for client money outside a conveyance. s 6

2. Enrol with AUSTRAC

   Within 28 days of your first designated service. The date for practices already acting before 1 July 2026 was 29 July 2026. s 51B

3. Have your program in place before you act

   A written ML/TF risk assessment and AML/CTF policies, approved by a senior manager. s 26B s 26P

4. Check your client

   Before you start, or for a buying client within the settlement window. s 28 Rules 6-32

5. Report and keep records

   Suspicious matters, cash of A$10,000 or more, the annual compliance report, and 7-year records. s 41 s 43 s 47

Which of your services are designated

Item 1: conveyancing. Assisting a person to plan or carry out a transaction to sell, buy or otherwise transfer real estate, or acting for them in it, in the course of a business, where the transfer is not under a court or tribunal order.¹ AUSTRAC lists the usual conveyancing steps as part of the service: preparing, reviewing or lodging the contract and transfer; title, strata and land-use searches; coordinating with lenders on payments and mortgage discharge; holding a buyer's funds and disbursing trust funds at settlement, or arranging release of the deposit; preparing for financial settlement; and preparing documents for the land registry.² A transfer without payment, such as a parent transferring the family home to a child, still counts. A transfer made to give effect to a court order, such as after a court-ordered grant of probate or under family law consent orders, does not.²

Item 2: companies and trusts. Helping a client buy, sell or transfer a company, trust or other body corporate or legal arrangement is a separate item.¹

Item 3: client money. Receiving, holding and controlling, or managing, a person's money or property as part of a transaction is item 3, subject to exclusions.³ Item 3 does not apply where the service is another designated service, and AUSTRAC treats holding and disbursing settlement money within a conveyance as part of item 1. Either way, that money is inside a regulated service. For money you hold outside a conveyance, the "reasonably incidental" exclusion is not available to a practice that provides another designated service, but the exclusions for your own fees, court-ordered money, and payments to or from government bodies, courts and licensed insurers still are.³

Town agents. AUSTRAC says a town agent engaged for a settlement acts as your agent, so your practice is the reporting entity. You make sure the town agent follows your AML/CTF policies, carry out personnel due diligence on them, and train them (or check that they have had relevant training) for the work.²

Where you act. An item applies only to a service provided at or through a permanent establishment in Australia, or through a foreign permanent establishment of an Australian resident or a resident's subsidiary.⁴

AUSTRAC links on this page open in a new window. AUSTRAC has not reviewed or endorsed this guide.

When the service starts

In AUSTRAC's reading, you start providing item 1 when you act on instructions and a transaction exists: in a private treaty sale, or an auction that does not meet reserve, when a buyer and seller agree the price; at an auction that meets reserve, when the buyer's bid succeeds. General advice and a draft contract before then do not start the service.² Initial checks are due before that point, unless the delayed window below applies.

Enrolment

1. 1 July 2026

   Program, customer due diligence, reporting and record-keeping obligations began for professional services under Table 6, including conveyancing.

   Sch 3 item 11
2. 29 July 2026

   Enrolment was due for a practice that was already providing a Table 6 service before 1 July 2026, and no other designated service.

   A practice that starts later has 28 days from its first designated service. The obligation to enrol continues until you apply, and each day late is a separate contravention.

   Sch 3 item 12 s 51B
3. 28 August 2026

   AUSTRAC said it had begun issuing section 167 notices to businesses that appear to provide designated services but have not enrolled.

   s 167 AUSTRAC media release
4. 17 September 2026

   AUSTRAC's enrolment table showed 1,600 conveyancers enrolled.

   AUSTRAC enrol with us overview

Tell AUSTRAC of any change to your enrolment details within 14 days.⁵ See our enrolment guide.

Your AML/CTF program

Your AML/CTF program is your ML/TF risk assessment plus your AML/CTF policies.⁶

• Risk assessment. Assess the risks you may reasonably face, having regard to your services, clients, delivery channels and the countries you deal with. s 26C Review it after a significant change, and at least once every 3 years. s 26D No designated service without an up-to-date one. s 26E
• Policies. Procedures, systems and controls that manage those risks, reviewed at least once every 3 years, and followed. s 26F s 26G If you take part in an arrangement with agents, your policies must say how you will verify a client before settlement if the information does not arrive. Rules 5-20
• Before the first service. Document both, and document each update within 14 days. A senior manager approves both, and every update. s 26N Rules 5-15 s 26P
• Oversight and a compliance officer. The governing body oversees the program. Designate a compliance officer at management level, resident in Australia and fit and proper, within 28 days of your first designated service, and notify AUSTRAC within 14 days. s 26H s 26J s 26K s 26M

Sole conveyancers. If the reporting entity is an individual, the governing body is that individual.⁷ The compliance officer's regular reports to the governing body are not required where the reporting entity is an individual, or where the compliance officer is the same individual as the governing body.⁸ Our program guide sets out what each document must contain.

Checking your client

Before you start, you must have established on reasonable grounds who your client is, who is behind them, whether any of them is a politically exposed person or designated for targeted financial sanctions, and the nature and purpose of the transaction. You collect KYC information and verify it "using reliable and independent data", as the client's risk requires.⁹

A buying client: the delayed window. Where your client is, or is to be, the buyer, you may start before checks are finished if the delay is essential to avoid interrupting the ordinary course of business, the extra risk is low, and your policies deal with it.¹⁰ There is no equivalent window for a selling client.

The arrangement with the agent. Where conveyancing is the only designated service you provide to the client, you are taken to have established some of the section 28 matters (the people the client acts for, beneficial owners, politically exposed person and sanctions status, and Rules matters) if you have taken reasonable steps on an individual's identity, rated the client's risk and collected KYC information, and you take part in an arrangement under which another participating reporting entity (usually the agent) will collect and verify the KYC information within 28 days after exchange, lets you have it and the verification data at least 3 days before the initially agreed settlement day, and documents each participant's responsibilities, including for records.¹¹ The arrangement works both ways: an agent can rely on you in the same way. For the agent's side, see our real estate guide.

The rest of the checks. Enhanced checks are mandatory where the risk is high, for a foreign politically exposed person, and for the other triggers in section 32. s 32 Keep monitoring for unusual transactions and behaviour. s 30 A client whose relationship with you involved only Table 6 services at the start of 1 July 2026 is a pre-commencement customer: initial checks apply only once a suspicious matter reporting obligation arises, or a significant change in the nature and purpose of the relationship makes their risk medium or high. s 36 Our customer due diligence guide covers each step.

Reports to AUSTRAC

• Suspicious matter report (SMR). Within 3 business days of forming a suspicion; within 24 hours for terrorism financing; within 5 business days where some, but not all, of the information may be privileged and the privilege belongs to someone else, with an LPP form. s 41 Content: Rules 9-1 to 9-4. See our SMR guide.
• Threshold transaction report (TTR). Within 10 business days of a transaction involving A$10,000 or more in physical currency (notes and coins). Electronic settlement funds are not physical currency. s 43 s 5
• Annual compliance report. First reporting period 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, lodged in AUSTRAC's approved online form between 1 July and 30 September 2027. s 47 Rules 9-9

Once a suspicious matter report is made or required, do not disclose that where it could prejudice an investigation. s 123

Records

Keep transaction records for 7 years from when they are made, documents a client gives you about a transaction for 7 years, client-check records for 7 years from the end of the relationship or the one-off transaction, and program records for 7 years after they stop being relevant, all in English or readily convertible to it. s 107 s 108 s 111 s 116 See our record-keeping guide.

Where to check each obligation

Where we fit

AUSTRAC's conveyancer program starter kit is free. AUSTRAC designed it for practices of 15 or fewer personnel, not operating under a legal practising certificate, that mostly act for Australian-resident individuals, do not act on overseas property, and only handle client funds directly related to real estate transactions. Outside that profile, AUSTRAC says "You cannot rely on the starter kit to meet AUSTRAC's regulatory expectations", and it also says its guidance "isn't a substitute for legal advice".¹²

Our kit (A$497, one-off) builds on it. The conveyancer edition adds a procedure for the buying-client window and settlement verification, an agent-arrangement form, and a note for recording your trust-money decision under item 3. Our set-up service (from A$990) tailors it to your practice. We do not act as your compliance officer, lodge reports for you or carry out your independent evaluation.

• Your sector page: conveyancing practices.
• More guides: the guides page, and every source on our sources page.

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