ASIC has made a new legislative instrument to reflect our updated policy approach for the regulation of employee entitlement schemes under the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act).
ASIC Corporations (Employee Entitlement Schemes) Instrument 2026/199 replaces the existing relief, which expires on 1 April 2026.
Under the new instrument:
- scheme operators are required to apply to ASIC for an Australian financial services (AFS) licence by 1 September 2026
- conditional relief is given from the managed investment, product disclosure and hawking provisions of the Corporations Act, and
- transitional arrangements apply until an AFS licence is granted by ASIC.
More information about the relief available to scheme operators under the new instrument is outlined in ASIC Information Sheet 295 Employee entitlement schemes (INFO 295).
We will update standard licence conditions in Pro Forma 209 Australian financial services licence conditions (PF 209) and INFO 295 to reflect our policy approach and the new instrument in April 2026.
Background
The primary objective of an employee entitlement scheme is to fund benefits payable to employees upon termination of employment, or long-service leave entitlements.
Operators of these schemes are exempt from the AFS licensing, managed investment, and associated provisions of the Corporations Act under ASIC Corporations (Employee redundancy funds relief) Instrument 2015/1150 until 1 April 2026.