Embracing this evolution will ultimately yield higher security, seamless transaction efficiency, and vital protections for both buyers and sellers, writes Lucas McEntee.
AgencySettlements has fast become a central topic of debate in Australian real estate; the transition toward modernised deposit handling reflects an inevitable industry shift. Developed over years of legal review, AgencySettlements is a law firm focused on replacing outdated, high-risk methods of transacting.
Change brings differing opinions; however, adopting this new framework protects consumers. By slashing admin tasks by 90 per cent, we save agencies hours and reduce risk. But more importantly, we are delivering the only tangible response to the growing threats of AI-driven payment fraud.
In my opinion, embracing this evolution will ultimately yield higher security, seamless transaction efficiency, and vital protections for both buyers and sellers.
I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks fielding calls and explaining AgencySettlements. I am firmly of the opinion that we are the most talked-about innovation to hit the real estate industry in the last decade.
I pride myself on playing things with a very straight bat, so I want to respond directly to the big questions that are being asked:
1. Is it legal?
2. How does it work?
3. Why are so many agencies using AgencySettlements?
1. Is it legal? Yes. We carefully put AgencySettlements together over years with industry feedback and legal advice from national real estate specialist law firms, Piper Alderman and Thomsons, plus peer-reviewed by Jemmeson & Fisher. We have been engaging with the Office of Fair Trading since December 2025. What we have created is not a legal loophole; AgencySettlements is designed to work within the existing legal framework.
Any law firm can be added as a stakeholder to a sale contract and legally hold the deposit. What differs with AgencySettlements is that, as a group, we have worked with real estate agents for 6 years and processed 10’s of 1,000’s of payments (over $500 million since 2021). We know the deposit workflow and have built a system to make life easier for agents, plus reduce risk for the vendor, buyer, and conveyancer.
We’re registered and regulated by the Law Society in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, and ACT.
As a law firm, we have the highest level of insolvency protections available to consumers, with funds held and protected in a law firm’s legal trust account.
2. How does it work? AgencySettlements is a law firm. We act for real estate agencies; they’re our client. We hold the deposit funds in a heavily regulated and secure legal trust account. We’re a stakeholder in the sale contract, not a third party. We have a legal right to collect and deal with the deposit.
The new process for requesting a deposit contains multi-factor authentication, a one-time password, and only uses BPAY and PayTo to accept the deposit payment. Much more secure than the old-fashioned way of using bank-state-branch (BSB) and account numbers on email or text, which can easily be compromised by AI email and voice scams.
Once the deposit is collected, the agency advises us what they’re owed in commission or disbursements, which we collect and pay to your agency at settlement; the remaining funds are made available in Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) for the vendor’s solicitor or conveyancers to manage and pay to the vendor at settlement. An agency never needs to ring a vendor again to verify bank details. We also instantaneously send the order to the agent.
The buyer and seller always consent for AgencySettlements to act to collect the deposit at exchange and ensure the funds are in PEXA for full settlement.
3. Why are so many agencies using AgencySettlements? Simple: it reduces settlement admin by 90 per cent, which results in a reduction of the risk of human error, fraud, and increasingly frequent and sophisticated transaction redirection AI scams (with Australians losing $167 million last year, this change is overdue). 23 August 2025 is the 12-month anniversary since the first deposit was paid, with over 1,350 deposits now processed.
We deliver over two hours of time-saving per settlement, guaranteed. We reduce risk and save time whilst keeping agencies squarely in control of what happens with the deposit funds. This is in the vendor and buyer’s best interest. Everyone wins.
Change can be difficult. I am happy to sit and share our processes in detail with anyone who has questions.
AgencySettlements’ process is a huge leap forward in consumer protections. It removes many of the manual processes which exposed real estate transactions to fraud, human error and scams. I urge any agency, agent, conveyancer or solicitor to reach out and engage; change is coming, and it is going to make our sector a lot safer and more efficient.
Lucas McEntee is the CEO of Riverstone Partners.
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