Verify everything · Nothing to take on trust
How to check a broker before you sign, and how to check me
Search the licence number on the Fair Trading Licensing Register. Confirm the name matches the person in front of you and the status is current..
None of the organisations listed are affiliated with me and none of them endorse this site. Last checked 12 August 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026.
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Search the licence number on the Fair Trading Licensing Register. Confirm the name matches the person in front of you and the status is current.
Search the company or trading name on ASIC Connect and ABN Lookup. Confirm the entity on the agency agreement is the entity that holds the licence.
Ask which professional body they belong to and check the membership independently.
Read the agency agreement before you sign it, particularly the term, the exclusivity, the marketing contribution and what happens if you change your mind.
Have your own solicitor look at it. A broker who discourages that is telling you something.
What membership of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers is, and what it is not
The Australian Institute of Business Brokers is a professional membership organisation for business brokers. Its Code of Conduct requires members to “act with integrity and steadfastly adhere to our principles, rules and the law”, to “act honestly and truthfully so that public trust is protected”, to discharge duties “with skill, diligence, competence and care consistent with the prevailing professional standards”, to place the client’s interest first, to obtain written instructions before being engaged to sell or buy a business, and to keep clients promptly informed of substantial developments. The Code also covers insurance, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and deposit handling.
It is not a regulator, and the Code says so itself: “These rules do not replace any law. Where these rules are inconsistent with any applicable law, that law shall prevail.” The Institute does not issue the licence that permits a person to sell a Queensland business, does not administer the trust account regime, and does not administer the claim fund. Those are functions of the Queensland Office of Fair Trading under the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) and the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld).
Four things membership does not mean. It does not mean the member holds a current Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence, which is checked at ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au. It does not mean the member’s fee agreement complies with the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld). And it does not give you access to a statutory compensation fund, because the claim fund is statutory and administered by the Office of Fair Trading, capped at $200,000 per claimant under section 25(1) of the Agents Financial Administration Regulation 2014 (Qld).
Being precise about what could not be checked matters on a page like this. The Institute’s membership pages are not accessible when checked, so the membership categories, their individual entry requirements and the fees could not be verified and are not described here. What was verified from the Institute’s own published material is that the Code applies to all members “irrespective of membership type or category”, that only financial members may use its credentials, and that it runs a Certified Practicing Business Broker accreditation and a Registered Business Valuer accreditation, the latter requiring “a minimum of 5 years’ continuous experience as a current full time practicing business brokers”, current paid up membership, the Certified Practicing Business Broker accreditation, the Advanced Business Brokers course or equivalent, references, a personal disclosure form and professional indemnity insurance once accredited.
One more thing worth knowing before you weigh a membership badge. business.gov.au, the Commonwealth’s own small business site, tells sellers that business brokers help buy and sell businesses and to check their professional credentials, and points to the Institute. It does not mention state licensing at all. That is a gap in public guidance, and it is the reason to check the Office of Fair Trading register as well as any membership.
Check me the same way
Here are the details to check, and the places to check them. Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575, issued July 2026, searchable free at ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au by name or by licence number, which will return the licence number, the holder’s name, the licence type and a ‘details current at’ date. ABN 36 211 950 299, searchable free at abr.business.gov.au, which will return the entity name, the entity type, the ABN status and the GST registration status. Member of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers, which is a membership body and not a regulator. Based at Gumdale, Queensland 4154. Go and run those searches now, before reading any further, because the whole argument of this page is that you should not have to take a word of it on trust.
The licence is a floor rather than a distinguishing feature: anyone who holds one may describe themselves as a business broker tomorrow, which is exactly why this page is a list of registers instead of a list of adjectives. What sits behind this one is twenty years of operating experience. He co founded, owned, built and sold a toy business with his wife, so he has been the seller signing the appointment rather than the agent presenting it. He holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and has built and designed online safety training programmes. He runs sales and marketing for a hinterland tree farm. His father in law spent a working life growing turf in Queensland, built the business to substantial scale and sold it to competitors.
The limits set out above apply to checking him as much as to checking anyone else. The free Queensland register cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings, so buy the extract if the answer has to hold up. Whether that extract discloses disciplinary history could not be confirmed, so look at the Office of Fair Trading’s Legal and Enforcement Actions dataset on data.qld.gov.au as well. Sections 18 and 29 of the Australian Consumer Law apply to every sentence on this site, and the ACCC’s standard is that claims “should be true, accurate and based on reasonable grounds” and that “a business must be able to prove any claim they advertise”. That standard applies to what a broker says about your business, and it applies in exactly the same way to what a broker says about himself. If anything here fails it, the Office of Fair Trading is the place to say so, and the contact details are on qld.gov.au rather than buried on this page.
Verify this broker
Every register a Queensland business seller or buyer can search
| Register | What it holds | What a search returns | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair Trading Licensing Register ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au Queensland Office of Fair Trading | “A public register of all licensed property agents, salespeople and corporations” in Queensland, which is the licence class that covers business broking under section 26 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld). | Free search: the licence number, the name of the licence holder, the type of licence, and the date of the last data update in the ‘details current at’ field. Paid extract: the holder’s name, registered business name and place of business, the status expressed as current, expired, refused, cancelled or suspended, and the licence number and class. | Free online. The official extract is a paid product and its fee is published on the Office of Fair Trading fair trading fees page. The Office of Fair Trading states the free register “is for your information only. You cannot use it as evidence in legal proceedings.” |
| ASIC company and organisation register connectonline.asic.gov.au | Registered companies and other organisations, name availability, and the documents each has lodged. | Free: company name, ACN, registration date, status, type and the registered office locality. Paid: a current extract, a current and historical extract, a relational extract, lodged documents, certification of a document, and a certificate of registration. | Free search. Extract and document fees are published on the ASIC Connect paid products page. |
| ASIC business names register connectonline.asic.gov.au | Registered business names and the ABN of the holder. | The registered business name, its status and the ABN it is held against. A business name is an asset that has to be transferred at settlement, and the register tells you who actually holds it, which is not always the entity written into the contract. | Free search. Current and historical extract fees are published on the ASIC Connect paid products page. |
| ASIC banned and disqualified persons and organisations connectonline.asic.gov.au | People and entities “disqualified or banned from roles in corporations, financial services or the credit industry”, drawn from six source registers. | The name, the type of ban or disqualification, the start date, whether it is permanent or temporary, and the end date if it is temporary. | Free. Paid documents give more detail. |
| ASIC professional registers service.asic.gov.au | Australian financial services licensees, credit licensees, authorised representatives, registered liquidators and SMSF auditors. The Financial Advisers Register sits on Moneysmart. | Whether a named person or entity holds, or is authorised under, an AFS licence. If the name is not there, they do not hold one. This is the search to run before anyone discusses selling the shares in your company rather than the assets. | Free. |
| ABN Lookup abr.business.gov.au Australian Business Register | Australian Business Numbers and the entities they are issued to. | ABN status as active or cancelled, entity name, entity type, GST registration status and the date it took effect, main business location by postcode and state, and historical trading names where held. | Free, no login. GST registration status matters on a business sale because the going concern treatment turns on it. |
| Personal Property Securities Register ppsr.gov.au | Registered security interests over personal property, which on a business sale means the plant, equipment, vehicles, stock and intangibles. | A certificate, described by the register as “proof of whether or not a security interest was registered at that time”. Searches run by organisation identifier, by individual name and date of birth, by serial number for a motor vehicle, watercraft or aircraft, and by intellectual property, registration number, point in time or ordinal. | $2 per online search. Retrieving a copy of a search result is free. |
| Australian Business Licence and Information Service ablis.business.gov.au Department of Industry, Science and Resources | The licences, permits, approvals, registrations, codes of practice, standards and guidelines that apply to a described business across Commonwealth, state and local government. | A list built from the business activity and the location you enter, by guided search, or a named licence by custom search. Run the target business through it before settlement. | No fee stated. |
| Tax Practitioners Board register tpb.gov.au/registrations_search | The “registration details of registered, suspended and deregistered tax and BAS agents”. | Whether a named person or firm is registered, suspended or deregistered. The complete dataset is also downloadable from data.gov.au. | No fee stated. |
| Queensland Law Society qls.com.au and youandthelaw.com.au/directory | The Register of Solicitors, described as containing “records of all current legal practitioners in Queensland”, and the Find a Solicitor referral directory. | A listed solicitor and their practice. A directory listing requires an unrestricted practising certificate and full membership. The Society directs enquiries about whether a person holds a current practising certificate to its records team by email rather than answering that through the public search. | Free. |
| Queensland Building and Construction Commission my.qbcc.qld.gov.au | QBCC licensees. Two tools: find a local contractor, and the QBCC Licensee Register, which the Commission describes as more detailed and as giving “a complete licence history”. | The licensee, the licence class and status, and the licence history. Essential where the target holds a QBCC licence, because the licence and the licensee’s history do not transfer with the assets. | Free for the search tools. A requested list of every licensed certifier registered in Queensland is $15 and is processed within five working days. |
| Titles Queensland search.titlesqld.com.au | The Queensland titles registry: registered ownership, registered leasehold interests, registered mortgages, instruments and survey plans. | A current title search shows the registered owner and the registered interests. A historical search shows what came before. Instrument images include a community management statement. | FY2026/27 schedule: current title search $25.71, historical title search $37.88, image of another registered instrument or document $50.16, survey plan image $27.56. Reduced rates apply to an entity under section 35(4) of the Act. |
| ACNC Charity Register acnc.gov.au/charity/charities | Registered charities, their responsible persons, governing documents, and annual information statements including financial reports. | The registered charity, its status and its lodged documents. The field level detail could not be verified for this page, so treat the description as the Commission’s rather than as tested. | Free. |
Compiled 14 August 2026 from each operator’s own published description of its register. Fees are stated only where the operator publishes them: the Personal Property Securities Register search fee, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission certifier list fee, and the Titles Queensland FY2026/27 schedule. Where a fee could not be verified, including the ASIC search fees and the Queensland Office of Fair Trading official licence extract, the fee is published on the operator’s own fees page and should be read there rather than taken from here. One list is deliberately absent. AUSTRAC maintains the Reporting Entities Roll alongside the Remittance Services Register and the Digital Currency Exchange Register, and no public search interface for the Reporting Entities Roll could be located, so it is not listed as searchable.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Checked me out? Let's talk.
You have the licence number, the registers and the legislation. When you have finished checking, the next step is thirty minutes and a number. No cost, no obligation, no follow-up you did not ask for.