Terms & Conditions

Terms of service

Last updated: 1 July 2026

These terms of service govern your use of the CoSec Partners website (cosecpartners.com.au) and all services provided by CoSec Partners Pty Ltd (ABN 58 615 782 799), trading as CoSec Partners, with registered office at 232 Unley Road, Unley SA 5061.

By placing an order through this website or engaging our services, you agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use our services. If you are using this website or engaging our services on behalf of your firm (e.g. an accounting practice, legal practice, financial adviser, or other professional services firm) any reference herein to you, your firm (or similar) means you and your firm jointly and severally and you represent and warrant that you are duly authorised by your firm to accept these terms.

Services

CoSec Partners provides company registration, trust and SMSF deed preparation, corporate secretarial services, ASIC registered agent services, and related professional services as described on this website. All services are provided in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and applicable Australian law.

Prices listed on this website include GST and, where stated, ASIC lodgement fees. ASIC fees are set by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and are subject to change. We will notify you of any price changes before proceeding with your order if the fees have changed since your order was placed.

Orders and payment

When you submit an order through our website, you are making an offer to engage our services at the price stated. We will confirm acceptance of your order by email. An order is not binding until we have confirmed it and payment has been received.

We accept payment by credit card (Visa, Mastercard) and bank transfer. Payment is required before we commence work on your order, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed in writing.

Company name availability is checked with ASIC after your order is placed. If your proposed company name is not available, we will contact you to discuss alternatives before proceeding. If no suitable alternative can be agreed, we will refund your payment in full less any ASIC fees already incurred.

Turnaround times

Standard company registrations are typically completed within one business day of payment, subject to ASIC processing times. Orders placed after 2:00pm AEST may be processed the following business day. Complex formations, bespoke constitutions, and orders requiring additional information may take longer. We will advise you of expected timeframes when confirming your order.

Trust and SMSF deeds

All trust deeds and SMSF deeds are individually prepared and reviewed by our independent legal partner, Key Legal, a legal practice based in Perth, Western Australia. The signing legal practitioner's professional indemnity insurance covers the deed, subject to the terms and conditions of that insurance policy. For more information about this arrangement, see our Legal Assurance page.

Trust deeds are prepared based on the information you provide. It is your responsibility to ensure that the information provided is accurate, complete, and appropriate for your client's circumstances. CoSec Partners does not provide legal advice, tax advice, or financial advice. We recommend that all trust structures be reviewed by your client's own legal or tax adviser before execution.

ASIC registered agent services

Where we act as ASIC registered agent for your clients' companies, we will manage annual statements, lodge changes and notifications, and maintain compliance with ASIC requirements on your behalf. You remain responsible for instructing us of any changes to company details in a timely manner.

Authority to instruct and lodge

If you request services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent and warrant that you:

  1. are authorised by that person or entity to engage CoSec Partners, accept these terms and provide instructions on their behalf;
  2. hold written authority to provide us with all information and personal information required to perform the services;
  3. hold written authority for CoSec Partners to prepare, submit and lodge documents or transactions with ASIC or any other relevant government authority on behalf of that person or entity;
  4. have obtained all consents, approvals and authorities required by law or reasonably requested by us, including any consent to act as a director or secretary, consent to become a member, and consent to use an address as a registered office;
  5. have confirmed that each proposed or existing director has complied with all applicable director identification number requirements;
  6. have accurately disclosed any statutory fees separately from your own professional or service fees, where required;
  7. will provide us with evidence of any authority, consent or approval referred to in this section within five business days of our request, or sooner where required to meet a statutory or lodgement deadline; and
  8. will ensure that all information and instructions provided to us are accurate, complete, current and provided with the authority of the relevant person or entity.

We may rely on your instructions and on the representations and warranties in this section without independently verifying your authority, unless we are required by law or reasonably consider that further verification is necessary.

We may suspend or decline to provide a service where satisfactory evidence of authority, consent or approval has not been provided.

Referring firms and underlying clients

This section applies where an accounting practice, legal practice, financial adviser or other professional services firm places an order or requests services for the benefit of one of its clients.

Unless CoSec Partners expressly agrees otherwise in writing:

  1. the referring firm is our contracting customer and is responsible for providing instructions, paying our fees and complying with these terms;
  2. the underlying client is not a client of CoSec Partners merely because we prepare documents, make lodgements or provide services for their benefit;
  3. our provision of services does not create a solicitor-client, accountant-client, tax adviser-client, financial adviser-client, fiduciary or other professional advisory relationship between CoSec Partners and the underlying client;
  4. the referring firm remains responsible for advising the underlying client on whether the requested service, document, entity or structure is appropriate for their circumstances;
  5. the referring firm is responsible for communicating with the underlying client, obtaining their instructions and approvals, and reviewing the documents or services supplied by CoSec Partners before they are used or implemented; and
  6. the referring firm remains liable for our fees even where it intends to recover those fees from the underlying client.

CoSec Partners may communicate directly with an underlying client or their officers, members, beneficiaries or representatives where reasonably required to:

  1. verify identity or complete customer due diligence;
  2. obtain information, signatures, consents or approvals;
  3. comply with AML/CTF, sanctions, ASIC or other legal and regulatory obligations;
  4. deliver statutory notices, company records or completed documents; or
  5. perform the services requested by the referring firm.

Direct communication for these purposes does not, by itself, create a broader professional advisory relationship between CoSec Partners and the underlying client.

Where CoSec Partners enters into a separate direct engagement with the underlying client, including for registered office, ASIC registered agent, resident director or another ongoing service, that separate engagement will govern the direct relationship between CoSec Partners and the underlying client. The referring firm remains responsible for any obligations it has separately agreed to undertake.

AML/CTF Tranche 2 and reliance on referring firm CDD

This section applies in connection with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the AML/CTF Act) and its subordinate legislation (the AML/CTF Rules), in particular the Tranche 2 amendments that extend the reporting-entity regime to designated services provided by accountants, legal practices, and other professional services firms with effect from 1 July 2026.

Our AML/CTF status.

CoSec Partners is enrolled with AUSTRAC as a reporting entity and provides designated services within the meaning of section 6 of the AML/CTF Act, including (without limitation) forming companies and other legal entities, establishing trusts and other legal arrangements, providing registered office and ASIC registered agent services, and acting as or arranging for another person to act as a nominee director or company secretary. We maintain a written AML/CTF program and conduct customer due diligence (including KYC collection and verification) ("CDD") consistent with the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules, and AUSTRAC guidance.

Two ordering paths.
When you place an order with CoSec Partners:

  1. Direct order. If you are placing the order on your own behalf, or as a customer of the designated service within the meaning of the AML/CTF Act, CoSec Partners will conduct CDD on you (and any beneficial owners or controlling persons) before providing the designated service. Standard, simplified, or enhanced CDD applies depending on the assessed risk.
  2. Order placed via a referring reporting entity. If you are an accounting practice, legal practice, financial adviser, or other professional services firm that is itself a reporting entity under the AML/CTF Act, and you are placing the order on behalf of an underlying customer to whom your firm provides one or more designated services, CoSec Partners may rely on your firm’s compliance with its CDD obligations in respect of that customer pursuant to the reliance arrangement below and in accordance with the AML/CTF Act and AML/CTF Rules (“reliance basis”). This arrangement is intended to avoid duplicating identification, verification, and screening of the underlying customer.

Conditions for reliance.
When you place an order on the reliance basis, you agree, acknowledge, represent and warrant to CoSec Partners that:

  1. your firm is a reporting entity under the AML/CTF Act and maintains a written AML/CTF program meeting the requirements of the AML/CTF Act and the AML/CTF Rules;
  2. your firm has in place measures to ensure compliance with your obligations under Part 2 (Customer due diligence) and Part 10 (Record-keeping requirements) of the AML/CTF Act;
  3. this reliance arrangement is appropriate to the risks of money laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation financing that CoSec Partners may reasonably face in providing the designated services, taking into account the matters mentioned in subsection (2) of the AML/CTF Rules;
  4. your firm has complied with its CDD obligations under the AML/CTF Act and the AML/CTF Rules in respect of the customer and any designated service including (where applicable) identification and verification of the customer, identification and verification of beneficial owners (each individual who owns or controls 25% or more of the entity, or otherwise exercises effective control), assessment of the customer's risk profile, and screening against applicable sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) lists;
  5. your firm is not aware of any matter that would require the CDD of the customer to be refreshed by your firm under the AML/CTF Act and the AML/CTF Rules before CoSec Partners proceeds with the designated service;
  6. your firm must inform us if the circumstances of the customer required your firm to perform any enhanced CDD (including but not limited to being a politically exposed person or close associate, a customer subject to applicable sanctions, a customer located in or operating from a jurisdiction identified as high-risk by AUSTRAC or the Financial Action Task Force, or a customer with a complex or unusual ownership structure that warrants additional scrutiny);
  7. your firm must, on request from CoSec Partners:
    1. within a reasonable time, provide copies of any CDD information collected by your firm in relation to the customer that is appropriate to the ML/TF risk (as defined in the AML/CTF Act) of that customer; and
    2. immediately, or as soon as practicable, provide copies of any data used by your firm to verify any CDD information of the customer;
  8. your firm must notify CoSec Partners promptly if any matter arises that would change the risk profile of the underlying customer, render any of the above representations or warranties no longer correct, or otherwise affect this reliance arrangement;
  9. you are duly authorised by your firm to provide the above agreement, acknowledgements, representations and warranties on its behalf; and
  10. CoSec Partners relies upon this agreement, acknowledgements, representations and warranties in respect of the customer and for the purposes of Section 37A of the AML/CTF Act.

When reliance does not apply.
CoSec Partners will conduct its own CDD, and may decline to provide the designated service or pause an order pending CDD completion, where:

  1. you are not a reporting entity under the AML/CTF Act or otherwise unable to provide the agreement, representations and warranties above;
  2. the circumstances of the underlying customer trigger an enhanced CDD obligation (including but not limited to being a politically exposed person or close associate, a customer subject to applicable sanctions, a customer located in or operating from a jurisdiction identified as high-risk by AUSTRAC or the Financial Action Task Force, or a customer with a complex or unusual ownership structure that warrants additional scrutiny);
  3. the order is for a service to be provided directly to the underlying customer rather than through your firm (for example, where CoSec Partners is to be appointed as the ASIC registered agent or registered office for the customer with a direct contractual relationship between CoSec Partners and the customer);
  4. we become aware of any matter that gives reasonable grounds to suspect the customer or transaction may be related to money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud, tax evasion, sanctions evasion, or other unlawful activity; or
  5. the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules, or AUSTRAC guidance otherwise require us to conduct CDD ourselves regardless of any reliance arrangement.

Records and information sharing.
You acknowledge and agree that CoSec Partners may share information with your firm and vice versa relating to AML/CTF compliance for a customer, including for the purposes of CDD, ongoing monitoring, suspicious matter reporting (subject to the tipping-off provisions of section 123 of the AML/CTF Act), and record-keeping. You agree to provide CoSec Partners with the CDD records on reasonable request and to maintain those records in accordance with the AML/CTF Act for at least seven years (or such longer period as the AML/CTF Act or other law may from time to time require).

Suspicious matter reporting and tipping off.
Both your firm and CoSec Partners may have obligations under the AML/CTF Act to file suspicious matter reports (SMRs) with AUSTRAC. The tipping-off offence under section 123 of the AML/CTF Act prohibits disclosure of an SMR or related information to the customer or any unauthorised person. Each party is responsible for managing its own SMR obligations. CoSec Partners will not, and will not be expected to, disclose to the underlying customer any information relating to an SMR filed by either party.

Liability allocation.
A reliance arrangement under this section does not transfer your firm's reporting-entity obligations to CoSec Partners, nor does it transfer CoSec Partners' obligations to your firm. Each party remains responsible for its own compliance with the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules, and AUSTRAC guidance. You agree to indemnify CoSec Partners against any loss, regulatory penalty, fine, or third-party claim arising directly from your firm's breach of the agreement, representations and/ or warranties in this section, or from any failure by your firm to comply with its CDD obligations as required by the AML/CTF Act. This indemnity does not extend to any loss caused by CoSec Partners' own breach of the AML/CTF Act or its own AML/CTF program.

Updates.
The AML/CTF regime is subject to ongoing development by AUSTRAC and the Australian Government. We may update this section from time to time to reflect changes in the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules, AUSTRAC guidance, or our internal AML/CTF program. The current version will always be available on this page, and material changes may also be communicated to active referring firms by email.

ASIC late fee guarantee

For clients on our Outsourced or White Label ASIC service models, we guarantee that if an ASIC late fee is incurred as a direct result of our failure to lodge a document or pay an ASIC fee by its due date, we will reimburse the amount of the late fee to you or your client.

This guarantee does not apply where the late lodgement or payment was caused by: your failure to provide us with required information or instructions in a timely manner; your client's failure to pay ASIC fees when invoiced; circumstances beyond our reasonable control including ASIC system outages; or matters not within the scope of our engagement. The guarantee is limited to the amount of the ASIC late fee itself and does not extend to any consequential loss, penalty interest, or other costs.

This guarantee applies to clients on the Outsourced and White Label models only and does not apply to the Flexible (ad hoc) model.

Your responsibilities

You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide, and for ensuring you are authorised to provide it (including on behalf of any officeholder, shareholder, beneficiary, or client). We prepare documents and make lodgements based on the information you supply. We are not responsible for errors, delays, or rejected lodgements caused by information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or provided late, and you must give us instructions and required information in a timely manner.

No legal, tax, or financial advice

CoSec Partners provides document preparation, lodgement, and corporate secretarial services. We do not provide legal, taxation, accounting, financial, or superannuation advice, and nothing on this website or in our communications should be relied on as such. You are responsible for ensuring the structures and documents you order are appropriate for your circumstances, and we recommend you obtain your own professional advice before acting. Trust and SMSF deeds are prepared by our independent legal partner as described above.

Confidentiality

We treat the information you and your clients provide as confidential and use it only to provide our services and meet our legal obligations. We do not disclose it except to the parties described in our Privacy Policy (for example ASIC, the ATO, and our legal partner), where you authorise us, or where we are required or permitted by law. Each party must keep the other's confidential information confidential, other than information that is or becomes public without a breach of these terms.

Cancellations and refunds

You may cancel an order before we commence work for a full refund. Once work has commenced, we may retain a reasonable amount reflecting the work done and any third-party fees already incurred. ASIC fees are generally non-refundable once paid to ASIC, and we cannot refund a lodgement fee once a registration or lodgement has been submitted. Where a company name is unavailable, the refund arrangements described under “Orders and payment” apply.

Indemnity

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify CoSec Partners against any loss, liability, cost, or claim arising from information you provide that is inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading; your breach of these terms; your failure to provide instructions or information in a timely manner; or your use of the documents or services for a purpose other than that for which they were prepared. This indemnity does not apply to loss caused by our own breach of these terms or our negligence. The separate AML/CTF reliance indemnity is set out in the AML/CTF section above.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, CoSec Partners' total liability to you in connection with our services is limited to the fees you have paid for the specific service giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for any indirect, consequential, or incidental loss or damage, including loss of profit, loss of revenue, or loss of opportunity.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any consumer guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Intellectual property

All documents, templates, constitutions, trust deeds, and materials prepared by CoSec Partners or our legal partners remain our intellectual property until payment has been received in full. Upon payment, you receive a licence to use the documents for the purpose for which they were prepared. You may not reproduce, resell, or distribute our templates or standard form documents.

Privacy

We collect and handle personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or decline to provide services where payment is overdue, where required information or customer due diligence has not been provided, or where we reasonably suspect a breach of these terms or unlawful activity. Either party may terminate an ongoing engagement (such as registered agent or White Label services) by giving reasonable written notice. On termination you remain liable for fees for services provided up to that date, and we will return or transfer registers and records as reasonably required to hand over to you or your nominated provider.

Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performing our services to the extent it is caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including ASIC, ATO, or other government system outages, telecommunications or internet failures, natural events, or changes in law. We will take reasonable steps to minimise the impact of any such event.

Dispute resolution

If a dispute arises, the parties will first try to resolve it by good-faith discussion. If it is not resolved within a reasonable time, the parties will attempt mediation before commencing court proceedings, except where urgent relief is required or the dispute concerns payment of undisputed fees. This does not affect either party's rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

General

These terms, together with the policies referred to in them (including our Privacy Policy and Email Policy), record the entire agreement between us in relation to our services. If any provision is invalid or unenforceable, it is severed and the remaining provisions continue. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign your rights under these terms without our written consent; we may assign or novate our rights and obligations on reasonable notice, for example as part of a sale or restructure of our business.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of South Australia. Any dispute arising under these terms is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of South Australia.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The current version will always be available on this page. Material changes will be communicated by email to active clients.

Contact

CoSec Partners Pty Ltd, 232 Unley Road, Unley SA 5061.

Phone: 1300 226 226.

Email: team@cosecpartners.com.au.

Important: These terms are provided as a reference and should be reviewed by your own legal adviser. CoSec Partners recommends that all clients and referring professionals satisfy themselves of the terms of engagement before placing an order. The AML/CTF reliance section in particular records significant representations and an indemnity; referring firms should obtain their own AML-experienced legal advice before placing orders on a reliance basis.