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Deposits, trust accounts, and settlement tech sound boring right up until someone’s money goes missing. We sit down with real estate lawyer Greg Jemmeson to unpack what’s actually changing in the NSW settlement process as the industry shifts further into digital conveyancing, AI-enabled workflows, and third-party platforms that want to hold deposits as stakeholders.
We talk through the real risks behind the headlines: hacking, fraud, and misdirected funds in high-pressure financial transactions. Greg explains why Fidelity Fund coverage matters, what protections exist when money is held in a regulated trust account, and why the question of “who holds the deposit” is now the centre of so many heated conversations. We also revisit the lessons from PEXA: early resistance, real benefits, and the need to separate fear from practical compliance.
The key detail is contractual: a third-party deposit holder can be compliant when there’s a clear, compliant special condition in the contract that all parties agree to at exchange. We dig into what that clause is doing, what happens if a vendor’s solicitor refuses to include it, and why funds can’t be released without proper authority or, in a dispute, a court order. Greg also clears up a common misconception about AML checks: using a third party doesn’t remove the agent’s AML obligation; it just changes how the work gets done.
If you care about safer settlements, clearer contracts, and reducing agency risk without guessing your way through compliance, you’ll get a lot out of this chat. Subscribe, share this with an agent or conveyancer, and leave a review telling us who you think should hold the deposit and why.
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