CDD on companies, trusts, and SMSFs as buyers
How to conduct customer due diligence on corporate buyers, family trusts, unit trusts, and self-managed superannuation funds — including how to identify beneficial owners through ownership chains.
In short
Look through the entity to the natural persons behind it. For companies, verify any person holding 25% or more of issued capital. For trusts, verify the trustee, the settlor, any 25%-or-more fixed-entitlement beneficiary, and any appointor. For SMSFs, verify every member.
Corporate, trust, and SMSF buyers are common in Australian real estate, particularly in premium and investment segments. The AML/CTF Rules 2025 require materially more verification for these entities than for individuals, and the work is concentrated in one place: identifying the natural persons behind the legal structure.
The principle is straightforward. A company or trust is a legal construct. Behind it sit individuals who ultimately own or control the assets. The Rules require you to identify those individuals — not just the entity on the contract.
Companies. Confirm the company exists on the ASIC register: full company name, ACN, registered office. Verify the natural person signing the contract on the company's behalf. Identify any natural person who holds 25% or more of the issued capital and verify them as you would any individual buyer. Where a company is itself majority-owned by another company, trace the chain until you reach natural persons at the 25% threshold. Where no person meets the threshold, fall back to the senior managing official.
Discretionary trusts. Obtain the trust deed or a certified extract. Verify the trustee — for a corporate trustee, apply the company process and verify each director. Verify the settlor. Where a named beneficiary holds a fixed entitlement of 25% or more, verify them. Where beneficiaries are a class (for example, "the children of the settlor"), document the class description. You are not required to verify every class member. Identify any person with power to appoint or remove the trustee and verify them — the appointor often holds the real control.
Unit trusts. Unitholders with 25% or more of total units are beneficial owners and must be verified. The process mirrors major-shareholder verification in a company.
SMSFs. Confirm the fund exists and is compliant via the ATO's Super Fund Lookup. Verify each trustee: for individual-trustee funds, every member is a trustee and must be verified; for corporate-trustee funds, apply the company process to the trustee entity and verify each director. Every member of an SMSF is a beneficial owner.
When to escalate to ECDD. Overseas entities, structures with opaque ownership chains, entities operating in or from FATF Call for Action jurisdictions (Iran, DPRK, Myanmar at the February 2026 plenary), and structures where the chain cannot be resolved to natural persons at the 25% threshold all warrant enhanced customer due diligence. Where you cannot resolve the ownership structure after reasonable measures, the relationship cannot proceed and a suspicious matter report should be considered.
Operationally, the simplest discipline is to request the ASIC extract or trust deed before signing the agency agreement. Resolving the chain late — particularly close to settlement — is where most agencies will get caught out.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the beneficial-ownership threshold under the Rules?
- 25% ownership or control. Where no natural person meets that threshold, you fall back to the senior managing official or other person who exercises control — the alternative-individual fallback in the AML/CTF Rules 2025.
- Do I have to verify every beneficiary of a discretionary trust?
- No. Where beneficiaries are a class (for example, 'the children of the settlor'), document the class description. Verify any named beneficiary with a fixed entitlement of 25% or more, the trustee, the settlor, and any person with power to appoint or remove the trustee.
- Where can I confirm an SMSF exists?
- The ATO's Super Fund Lookup confirms ABN, status, and trustee structure for self-managed super funds. It is the primary register, free and authoritative.