Family member of a PEP: how wide is the net?

People search “PEP family member CDD Australia” when an agent has the spouse on the contract and the public figure only as a name mentioned at the open home. Checked against AUSTRAC’s politically exposed persons guidance on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. What enhanced measures then require is enhanced customer due diligence in Australia. Who the customer is on the contract is who is the customer in real estate AML. The sector map is /tranche-2.

Wider than the PEP, not the whole family

Agents hear that family members are caught and then either ignore the spouse or KYC every person who could attend the auction, and both are wrong. AUSTRAC’s PEP guidance is where the relationship is described, and the program is where your firm applies it. This page does not copy that definition. The practical width on a suburban sale is the close family the guidance is aimed at: the person the PEP shares a household or a parental link with, showing up as the buyer while the PEP stays off the contract.

A more distant relative is a question, not an automatic yes. Same surname, same suburb, or a plus-one at an inspection does not enrol a cousin. If you cannot tell from the file, you ask the question the program tells you to ask, and you write the answer. You do not guess a family tree from a social post.

• Look at the name on the contract. The PEP’s spouse as buyer is the miss. The PEP’s absence from the paper is not a clearance.
• Stop before the distant relatives. A cousin, a former in-law, or a business partner is not inside by atmosphere. The program’s definition is the edge.
• The trust can be the paper name. If a family trust is the buyer, ask who controls it, then ask whether that person is the PEP or the close family.
• Then apply enhanced measures only if the program says so. Family membership is the fact. The measures are the next sentence in the program, not a new product.

Who the sales meeting adds by habit

Screening a person against sanctions is a different list, on sanctions screening in Australia. Do not treat a PEP family question as a sanctions hit.

Where the family-net page stops

This page is how wide the family net is for an agency. It is not the domestic examples of who counts as a PEP, and it is not the enhanced due diligence procedure. FreeAML does not decide that a relative is in the net.

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. Being a family member does not add a third price, and it does not remove the client-pays check the program requires for that customer. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not decide how wide your PEP family net is or label a relative.

Frequently Asked Questions