Limited AFS licensees

If you are authorised to provide only specific limited kinds of financial services, you might be a limited Australian financial services (AFS) licensee. These pages can help you understand your obligations under financial services laws.

Who is this information for?

This information will be relevant to you if you are a limited AFS licensee or a representative of a limited AFS licensee.

While limited AFS licensees are often accountants, this is not always the case.

Who is a limited AFS licensee?

We use the term ‘limited AFS licensee’ to describe individuals, companies and any other firms that hold an AFS licence that authorises them to provide only one or more of the following limited financial services:

• financial product advice about:
  • self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs)
  • a client’s existing superannuation holdings, to the extent required for making a recommendation to establish an SMSF or providing advice to a client on contributions or pensions under a superannuation product
• ‘class of product advice’ about:
  • superannuation products
  • securities
  • simple managed investment schemes
  • general insurance products
  • life risk insurance products
  • basic deposit products
• arranging to deal in an interest in an SMSF.

An AFS licensee who is authorised to provide financial services other than these limited financial services is not a limited AFS licensee. For example, an AFS licensee who can provide financial product advice about securities (rather than ‘class of product advice’ about securities) is not a limited AFS licensee because financial product advice about securities is not covered in the list above.

Who is a representative of a limited AFS licensee?

You are a ‘representative’ of a limited AFS licensee if you are:

• an ‘authorised representative’ of that limited AFS licensee (i.e. an individual, body corporate or partnership authorised by the limited AFS licensee to provide particular financial services on their behalf – authorised representatives are recorded on the register of Australian financial services authorised representatives)
• an employee or director of the limited AFS licensee
• an employee or director of a related body corporate of the limited AFS licensee, or
• otherwise acting on behalf of the limited AFS licensee.

More in this section

• Information Sheet 227 What can limited AFS licensees do? (INFO 227), which explains the scope of the activities you can carry out under a limited AFS licence
• Information Sheet 228 Limited AFS licensees: Advice conduct and disclosure obligations (INFO 228), which explains what you need to do when you provide advice to retail clients (especially advice about SMSFs)
• Information Sheet 229 Limited AFS licensees: Complying with your licensing obligations (INFO 229), which explains what you must do as a limited AFS licensee on an ongoing basis
• Limited AFS licensees: Quick guide – download a ‘quick guide’, which highlights some of the main obligations that apply when giving advice to retail clients under a limited AFS licence