AML Compliance Guide
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Deadline: 29 July 2026 — enforcement now active

AUSTRAC enrolment for Financial adviserss — 2026 AUSTRAC Guide

If your financial advice business provides a designated service from 1 July 2026, you become a reporting entity and must enrol with AUSTRAC. Enrolment is the first legal step that puts your practice on AUSTRAC’s records and connects to your reporting and compliance obligations. If you miss the deadline, you can face serious enforcement action, with civil penalties under the Act reaching up to $33.5 million per contravention and criminal penalties for intentional breaches.

Your AML/CTF obligations

  1. 1. AUSTRAC enrolment
  2. 2. Compliance officer
  3. 3. ML/TF risk assessment
  4. 4. AML/CTF program
  5. 5. Customer due diligence
  6. 6. Sanctions screening
  7. 7. Suspicious matter reporting
  8. 8. Record keeping (7 years)
  9. 9. Staff training

For financial advisers, the first question is not whether you hold an AFSL or give personal advice. The question is whether your business provides a designated service listed in Schedule 1 of the AML/CTF Act. Not every advice activity is captured. You need to look closely at the services your practice actually delivers, especially where you arrange, instruct, facilitate or handle client money movements, structures or products in a way that falls within a designated service. If you do provide a designated service, enrolment with AUSTRAC is mandatory.

Hard deadline

If your existing financial advice business will be providing a designated service from 1 July 2026, you must enrol with AUSTRAC by 29 July 2026. If your business starts providing a designated service after 1 July 2026, you must enrol within 28 days of first providing that service. Enrolment is done through AUSTRAC Online at austrac.gov.au and there is no fee.

What a financial advice practice should do now

  • Map your service lines and identify which activities are designated services, rather than assuming all financial advice is covered or not covered.
  • Decide which legal entity provides the designated service — your company, partnership, trustee company or another operating entity.
  • Gather the details AUSTRAC will require for enrolment: business structure, contact details, key personnel and the designated services you provide.
  • Set up access to AUSTRAC Online and complete the enrolment form for the correct entity before 29 July 2026.
  • Put a process in place to update enrolment details within 14 days if your business name, contacts, controllers or service profile changes.

A common mistake in advice businesses is assuming enrolment is a licence or approval to operate. It is not. Enrolment is a mandatory notification to AUSTRAC that your business is a reporting entity. Another mistake is enrolling the wrong entity. Many advice practices trade under one brand but operate through multiple licensee, authorised representative, corporate authorised representative or service entities. AUSTRAC enrolment has to be done for the entity actually providing the designated service, not just the best-known trading name.

In practice, principals of small advice firms should review referral pathways, platform arrangements, superannuation and investment implementation steps, and any client money handling points before enrolling. If one part of the business provides a designated service and another part only gives strategic advice, do not guess — work out which entity and workflow trigger the obligation. Keep a short internal paper recording why you decided the business is, or is not, providing a designated service. That will help if AUSTRAC later asks how you reached your position, and it reduces the risk of missing the 29 July 2026 deadline while the business assumes someone else has dealt with it.

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Frequently asked questions

Do all financial advisers have to enrol with AUSTRAC from 1 July 2026?
No. Enrolment is only required if your business provides a designated service under Schedule 1 of the AML/CTF Act. Being a financial adviser, AFSL holder or authorised representative does not automatically mean every service you provide is captured.
Our practice only gives strategic advice and does not handle client money. Do we still need to enrol?
Not necessarily. The key issue is whether you provide a designated service, not whether you call yourself a financial adviser. You should review your actual service model carefully, including implementation steps, instructions and any role in arranging transactions, before deciding that enrolment is not required.
Is AUSTRAC enrolment the same as getting a licence or approval from the regulator?
No. Enrolment is not a licence. It is a notification to AUSTRAC that your business is a reporting entity because it provides a designated service.
What does it cost to enrol with AUSTRAC?
Enrolment is free. You complete it through AUSTRAC Online. The real cost for most advice practices is the time needed to confirm whether their services are designated services and to enrol the correct legal entity.
We operate under one advice brand but have separate entities for licensing, advice delivery and administration. Which one enrols?
The entity that actually provides the designated service must enrol. Do not assume the head office company, trustee or trading entity should be enrolled just because it is the main brand the client sees. You need to match the enrolment to the legal entity delivering the designated service.

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