Family law property settlement: court order carve-out

People search “family law property AML exemption” when a family lawyer treats every property settlement as exempt because a court will eventually be involved. Checked against AUSTRAC’s real estate designated services on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. The Act’s grouping of services is designated services under the AML/CTF Act. A conveyancer assisting a transfer, which is a different role, is AML for conveyancers assisting a transfer. The sector map is /tranche-2.

The order is the carve-out, not the breakdown

Family property work produces several transactions that look like one story, and the carve-out people mean by a family law property AML exemption is the real estate item’s treatment of a transfer made under a court or tribunal order. You read that item against the sealed orders. This page does not reproduce it and does not apply it to your matter, and a commercial court’s orders are a different page. This one is the family law file only.

Consent orders count as orders once the court has made them, and a minute of consent sitting in a draft email does not. An agreement to sell the house to a third party, even when the proceeds are what the orders will divide, is a sale. The buyer is a stranger to the marriage. That sale is not renamed by the family law context.

• Ask whether orders exist. Proposed orders are a plan. Made orders are the instrument.
• Limit the carve-out to the transfer it describes. A transfer between the former spouses under the orders is the question. The listing, the auction, and the third-party contract are separate questions.
• Keep the firm’s other services in view. Advice on the settlement can still be a designated legal service under the program. The property carve-out does not answer that question.
• File the reason. Cite the orders, say which transfer you mean, and say what else on the file you did not treat as exempt.

Orders, drafts, and a sale to a stranger

Decision trees for designated services generally are the designated services decision trees. Law society material is a different layer, on Law Society NSW and AML.

Where the family-settlement page stops

This page is the family law property file and the court-order carve-out. It is not a commercial judgment, and it is not a way to structure a sale so a designated service disappears. FreeAML does not read your orders.

What the client pays

On FreeAML the firm suite is A$0. The firm emails the client a link. Verification is client-pays. On the public list a personal KYC check is A$20 and a company or trust KYB check is A$40. Use KYB when the customer is a company or a trust. An exemption question is not a check, and a sale that stays in scope is still a client-pays verification if the program requires one. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not decide that the settlement is exempt or clear a related sale.

Frequently Asked Questions