Check that the business or person is licensed

Deal only with licensed businesses, or persons authorised by a licensed business, when you're getting financial advice and buying financial products. 'Financial products' include deposit accounts, life and general insurance, superannuation and investments in managed funds, shares, debentures, and other more complex financial investments. (Loans and direct investments in real estate are regulated under State laws, and are excluded from ASIC licensing.)

Before you run a free search to find out if a business is licensed, read:

Who must be licensed
Check out a business or adviser you want to deal with
Searching our AFS Licensees Register
Searching our AFS Authorised Representatives Register

Who must be licensed

Under the law, any business or person that offers or advises you about financial products must either be:

an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence holder (often referred to as an AFS licensee),
OR
a director or employee of an AFS licence holder,
OR
an Authorised Representative of an AFS licence holder.

AFS Authorised Representatives, may be individuals or businesses and are often just called 'Authorised Representatives'. If an Authorised Representative is a business, each director or employee of that business who offers or advises you about financial products, must hold a separate authorisation to represent the licence holder.

An Australian Financial Services licence offers you various legal protections if something goes wrong. No licence means no protection, so check licence details for any financial services business you're thinking of dealing with. If you are dealing with an 'Authorised Representative', you are still protected as though you are dealing with the licensee itself.

You can run free safety checks on ASIC's registers to make sure the business you're proposing to deal with is properly licensed to advise on, or sell you, financial products.

Check out a business or adviser you want to deal with

You can check on a business or adviser by searching our registers, even if you haven't made contact with them yet. Perhaps you've seen an advertisement for them and you're wondering if they're licensed.

After you've made contact with a business ask them:

Question

"Do you or the business you work for hold an Australian Financial Services licence or are you an authorised representative of an AFS licence holder?"

If they say:

'I hold an AFS licence' - run a free check on our AFS Licensees Register (below) to confirm this.

'The business I work for holds an AFS licence' - ask for the name of the licensee that they work for and then contact that business to confirm that the person is their employee. Then run a free check on our AFS Licensees Register (below) to confirm that the business holds an AFS licence.

'I'm an Authorised Representative' - run a free check on our AFS Authorised Representatives Register (below) to confirm this. All employees of an Authorised Representative who offer or advise about financial products, must hold a separate authorisation to represent the licence holder.

'Our business is not licensed' - walk away. They are breaking the law. Find someone who is licensed.

Another check you can do - You can also run a free check on our Banned and Disqualified Registers (opens new window).

Searching our AFS Licensees Register

If they say they hold an AFS licence you can run a free check on our AFS Licensees Register (opens new window) to confirm this and find more information about them.

Note: Directors and employees of AFS licensees are not listed in this register. If they say they are an employee of a licensee, ring the business to check.

What you'll see when you search our AFS licensees Register

What you'll see on our register	How this information can help you
Licence number	Helps identify the right business from others with similar names. (This number must appear on the licensee's Financial services guide, Statements of advice and Product disclosure statements.)
Name	The exact registered name of the company that holds the licence. Some businesses may use a different business name for different products or services. (If you want to know more about the company itself, do a company search using this name.)
Status	'Current' means they can deal with you. 'Ceased' means they can no longer deal. Deal only with a 'current' licence holder.
ABN	Australian Business Number, used for GST purposes.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when their licence first began. All licences will begin at some time after March 2000.
Previous licence details	Some types of businesses were licensed by ASIC before March 2000. Other types of financial services businesses did not need the previous ASIC licence, for example superannuation, life and general insurance companies.
Role	Previous licences were divided into separate roles. Most licence holders were 'securities dealers'.
Licence no	The previous licence number
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when the previous licence started.
Principal business address	The licensee's principal business address in Australia.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when they started at that address.
Service address	Where to serve official legal documents.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when that service address started.
Auditor of FSR licensee	Who audits the licensee's financial statements and who must report to ASIC any breaches of licence conditions.
For authorised representatives for this licensee, authorised representatives	This link opens our register of authorised representatives, and shows you the name and other details of any separate business whom this licensee has authorised as its representatives. If you are dealing with an authorised representative, you are still protected as though you were dealing directly with the licensee itself.
For Licence Conditions for this Licensee, Licence Authorisation Conditions	This link shows you what financial products and services the licence allows this licensee to offer. In general, if a financial product or service is not actually mentioned, then the licensee is not authorised to offer it. This should match what's in the licensee's Financial services guide. If you are dealing with an authorised representative, they may offer only the products and services that their licensee is allowed to offer.

Searching our Authorised Representatives Register

If they’re an authorised representative of a licensed business then you can run a free check on our AFS Authorised Representatives Register (opens new window) to confirm this and find more information about them.

Note: Directors and employees of AFS licensees do not have to be separately authorised and so you will not find them listed in this register.

What you'll see when you search our Authorised Representatives Register

What you'll see on our register	How this information can help you
Number	Helps identify the right authorised representative from others with similar names. When you're in the searching screen you can click this number. It takes you to information about them. FIDO describes this information in the grey shaded rows later in this table.
Name	The exact registered name of the person or business that holds the authorisation. Some businesses may use a different business name for different products or services. Note: Directors and employees of AFS licensees do not have to be separately authorised and so are not listed in this register.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when their licence first began. All authorisations will begin at some time after March 2000.
Authorised representative details
Details of licensee Licence no	The licence number of the business that has authorised this representative. (If more than one number appears, this representative is authorised by more than one business.) The link displays more about the licence holder.
ABN	The Australian Business Number of the licensee, used for GST purposes.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when the licence started.
Details of Representative Rep. No.	The number of this authorised representative.
Name	The exact registered name of the person or business that holds the authorisation. Some businesses may use a different business name for different products or services.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when the authorisation started.
Same authorisations as licensee For Licence Conditions for this Licensee, Licence Authorisation Conditions	'Yes' means the authorised representative may offer the same financial products and services that the licensee is allowed to offer. The link displays what the licensee can offer. An authorised representative may offer only the financial products and services that their licensee is allowed to offer. Otherwise, you will see the limited authorisations this representative holds.
Trading name	The name the authorised representative trades under.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when they started that trading name.
Principal business address	The authorised representative's principal business address in Australia.
Comm. Date	Commencement date, when they started at that address.

Quick links

Quick links to our registers to check that a business is licensed:

AFS Licensees Register

AFS Authorised Representatives Register

Banned and Disqualified Registers

More information

Read Getting advice, our practical guide to personal financial advice

Other free safety checks you can make on our FIDO website

Standards for financial services

FIDO Website: Printed 03/17/2010