CDD for trust-owned property: what current guidance points to

A trust cannot walk into your office. It often has no ABN to look up, no face to match to a licence, no signature that belongs to "the trust" as a legal person. Yet trust-owned property is common across Australian real estate, and every agency captured by AUSTRAC Tranche 2 needs a working answer for what customer due diligence (CDD) looks like when the client is a trust.

This post describes current guidance, not a verified word-for-word reading of the legislation. The rule reference discussed below, AML/CTF Rules 2025 Rule 6-3 ("Customer is trust or foreign equivalent"), was checked against the Federal Register of Legislation's table of contents for F2025L01026 in our compliance knowledge base and its existence and topic confirmed there, but the specific field list below reflects secondary guidance, not a verified transcription of the rule text itself. AML Simple is a compliance workflow tool, not a provider of legal or regulatory advice. Confirm current requirements against your own AML/CTF program and, where it matters for a specific file, the primary legislation or a qualified AML/CTF compliance professional. See our Expert advice service if you want that review done for you.

Trust versus trustee: the distinction that actually matters

A trust is not a legal person. It cannot be identified or verified on its own. What can be identified and verified are:

The trust itself, through its trust deed and a small set of identifying details.
The trustee, who acts for the trust. The trustee might be a natural person, or it might be a company. If it is a company, current guidance treats that company as needing full company CDD in its own right, in addition to the trust-level checks.
The people standing behind the arrangement: trustee, settlor, appointor or guardian (if the deed provides for one), and beneficiaries. Current guidance points to each of these roles being treated as a beneficial owner or associated person for CDD purposes, similar to how a company's directors and major shareholders are treated.

What current guidance points to collecting on the trust itself

Full name and type of trust (discretionary, bare, or unit trust)
Any business or other known names
A unique identifier, if one exists. Many trusts have no ABN. Current guidance points to recording that none exists rather than leaving the field blank.
The principal place of business or operations
Evidence of the trust's existence and governance, most commonly the trust deed or an extract of it
The nature and purpose of the trust's business or operations

And on the people involved

The trustee. Current guidance points to verifying an individual trustee the same way you would any individual client. If it is a corporate trustee, guidance points to verifying the company separately, including its ACN, in addition to the trust-level details above.
The settlor, if identifiable
Any appointor, guardian, or protector named in the deed
Beneficiaries. Named individuals identified where practicable. Where the deed instead names a class, such as "the children of the primary beneficiaries," current guidance points to a description of that class as one accepted approach in place of naming each person. Confirm the specific treatment against your own AML/CTF program before relying on it for a given file.

Current guidance points to every trustee, settlor, appointor, and named beneficiary being treated as a beneficial owner of the trust for CDD purposes, a similar concept to the one that applies to a company's directors and major shareholders.

Why the corporate trustee case trips people up

A recurring pattern in trust files is treating the corporate trustee's ACN as if it belonged to the trust. Current guidance treats the trust and the trustee as two different things, with a complete file generally showing both: trust-level evidence (the deed) and trustee-level evidence (full company CDD, including the ACN, where the trustee is a company).

What AML Simple does with this

AML Simple's client screening workflow supports trust clients as an entity type, with beneficial owner records for the trustee, settlor, and beneficiaries attached to the one file, alongside the separate company-CDD record for a corporate trustee. See how it works at /get-started.