Written by William Paull
Co-Founder & Account Director
On this page
- What are the four, and what does each need?
- Does a business consultant need an AFS licence to talk about super or insurance?
- Can a consultant do tax agent work for a fee without registering?
- When does helping with a loan need a credit licence?
- Does helping a client with visa sponsorship need migration agent registration?
- Will your professional indemnity policy cover the licensed work?
- Who decides whether an engagement is licensed?
- Has your consulting work moved since your policy was written?
- Frequently asked questions
What are the four, and what does each need?
Management consulting is not a licensed occupation, and no law requires it to hold professional indemnity insurance. But a consultant can step into licensed work in a single engagement.
The four are:
- Financial product advice. It needs an Australian financial services licence, an AFS licence.
- Tax agent services for a fee. They need registration as a tax agent.
- Consumer credit activity. It needs a credit licence.
- Immigration assistance. It needs registration as a migration agent.
Get one wrong and it is a licensing problem first and an insurance problem second.
Whether you need professional indemnity outside these four, and what your contracts ask for, is on professional indemnity insurance for consultants.
Does a business consultant need an AFS licence to talk about super or insurance?
It can. It turns on whether what you say is advice about a financial product.
A person carrying on a financial services business must hold an Australian financial services licence covering the services provided, and failing to is an offence. Financial product advice means a recommendation or statement of opinion that is intended, or could reasonably be regarded as intended, to influence someone in making a decision about a financial product.
That is a wider net than most consultants assume. A business adviser telling a client to restructure into a self managed super fund, to move their superannuation, to buy a particular insurance, or to invest in a specific product is in that territory.
Once licensed, the law requires arrangements to compensate retail clients. For every non-exempt licensee the regulations require those arrangements to be adequate professional indemnity cover, unless ASIC has approved something else in writing.
Can a consultant do tax agent work for a fee without registering?
No. Providing a service you know or ought reasonably to know is a tax agent service, and charging or receiving a fee or reward for it while unregistered, is a civil penalty contravention.
The maximum is 250 penalty units for an individual and 1,250 for a body corporate. At the penalty unit of $364 that applies from 01/07/2026, that is up to $91,000 and $455,000.
Advertising the services, or representing that you are registered, are separate prohibitions. So a line on your website can be a problem before you have done any of the work.
Registration then makes professional indemnity insurance compulsory, both as a condition of registration and as a standing obligation under the Code of Professional Conduct. Start doing tax work for a fee and you go from no insurance required by law to registration required, and registration requires insurance.
Bookkeeping and BAS work sit on their own line. Where it falls, with the lists on both sides, is in our guide do bookkeepers need professional indemnity insurance?
When does helping with a loan need a credit licence?
Only when two things happen together. Engaging in a credit activity without a licence is prohibited. It carries a civil penalty of up to 5,000 penalty units, and there is a separate offence.
The test is narrow. It needs both:
- dealing directly with the consumer, and
- suggesting a particular credit contract with a particular credit provider.
Advisory or marketing work for a lender is not caught by it. Consumer-facing work that steers someone toward a named product is.
Does helping a client with visa sponsorship need migration agent registration?
It can, and it catches more consultancies than people expect. HR and business consultants routinely help employer clients with skilled visa sponsorship. Giving immigration assistance is work for a registered migration agent.
A migration agent cannot be registered unless they hold prescribed professional indemnity insurance, and the current figure is at least $250,000.
Cover held by an organisation the agent is a director, employee or member of counts. "Employee" is defined widely enough to include a consultant, an independent contractor or a volunteer, so an agency-employed agent may already be compliant through the practice.
Registration runs twelve months and has to be renewed, so in practice the cover has to be continuous.
A lawyer holding an unrestricted practising certificate sits outside the registered migration agent regime altogether, and is covered by their own profession's scheme instead.
Will your professional indemnity policy cover the licensed work?
Often not, and that is the second half of the problem. Several of the consultants' policies we read exclude financial, insurance or investment advice, and advice on finance, accounting or tax matters, outright. And a policy covers the work your schedule describes as your business.
So the work that needs a licence is often the work your current policy will not answer for. That is how one engagement can bring a penalty and an uninsured claim.
A policy whose definition of your professional business describes what you did three years ago is the most common gap we find in this segment.
What we check: Whether any of your work touches super, insurance, investments, tax, a consumer's loan or a visa, and whether your policy's definition of your professional business and its exclusions answer for it.
Who decides whether an engagement is licensed?
Not us. Whether a particular engagement has taken you into licensed territory is a question for the relevant regulator, and for your own legal adviser where the answer matters. This page sets out where those lines sit so you know which questions to ask. What your policy does about the exposure is our side of the table.
Has your consulting work moved since your policy was written?
Tell us what the engagement involves and send us your policy schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Which consulting activities make professional indemnity insurance compulsory?
Four: financial product advice, tax agent services for a fee, consumer credit activity and immigration assistance, and each needs a licence or registration first, which brings compulsory professional indemnity with it. Consolidated Insurance Brokers asks what the last twelve months of engagements actually involved, because the work triggers it, not your job title.
Does a consultant working for a registered migration agent need their own professional indemnity insurance?
Not if you are registered and the practice's cover meets the requirement. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reads the practice's policy schedule against the work you do. Giving immigration assistance needs your own registration as a migration agent, and you cannot be registered without professional indemnity of at least $250,000. Cover held by a practice you are a director, employee or member of counts, and "employee" includes a consultant or independent contractor.
Is marketing work for a lender a credit activity?
Not on its own. Consolidated Insurance Brokers raises the activity line early when a consultant's work drifts toward consumer credit. The licence test needs both dealing directly with the consumer and suggesting a particular credit contract with a particular credit provider. Advisory or marketing work for a lender is not caught. Consumer-facing work that steers someone toward a named product is, and that needs a credit licence.
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers check whether my professional indemnity covers the work I have taken on?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reads the definition of your professional business and the exclusions against what you actually do now. Several consultants' policy wordings exclude financial, insurance, investment or tax advice, so licensed work is often what the policy will not answer for. Whether the work itself needs a licence is a question for the regulator or your own legal adviser.