The categories
The exact wording is in the Act's tables of designated services. AUSTRAC's guidance for legal practitioners walks through each with examples.
- Assisting a client to plan or carry out the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate, or of a business or body corporate.
- Receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person's money or other property to help plan or carry out a transaction.
- Assisting in organising, planning or executing equity or debt financing for a company, trust or partnership.
- Assisting in the creation or restructuring of a company, trust or partnership.
- Acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a director, secretary, trustee, nominee shareholder or registered office.
- Selling or transferring shelf companies.
What is not designated
- Litigation and dispute resolution.
- Advice, including tax and structuring advice, that does not involve carrying out the transaction.
- Wills and estates (check AUSTRAC guidance for estate administration that involves property or entities).
- Criminal, family and employment law.
- Holding litigation settlement funds in trust, where the practice provides no other designated service: the Act treats that as incidental to non-designated work.
- Payments to or from government bodies, courts, the ATO and insurers, such as filing fees, bail or compensation paid through trust.
- Legal aid commissions, community legal centres and barristers acting for Australian government bodies, which are exempt.
Why it matters
Enrolment, your program and client due diligence all reference the services you provide. Add a service, update all three.
Questions people ask
- We only draft the contract; the client settles elsewhere. Designated?
- Assisting in planning or carrying out the transaction can be designated even if you do not handle settlement. Check the wording and AUSTRAC guidance for your role.
Sources
Official AUSTRAC guidance this page was checked against. The date is when we captured the page; AUSTRAC may have updated it since.
- Professional designated services · AUSTRAC, captured 14 Sept 2026
This guide is general information for solicitors, conveyancers, settlement agents, not legal advice. Check AUSTRAC's current guidance for your situation.