You may be able to benefit from the Inform Direct simplified Professional Formation Process

The simplified professional formation process is available if you, or the company acting as formation agent, are regulated by one or more of the following supervisory bodies:

  • A recognised professional body: such as the ICAEW, AAT or Law Society. Full list here

  • HMRC (for AML purposes).


You will need to provide the name of the company/individual registered with the supervisory body, together with their membership/firm reference or HMRC number (as applicable) as we must confirm registration with the supervisory body before we can grant access to our formations process.


In addition to the above you will also need to provide name, date of birth and residential address details for:

  • Any beneficial owners: a beneficial owner is an individual that is a Person with Significant Control of the company that is acting as the formation agent. You may wish to refer to our guide ‘Who is a person with significant control?’ for more advice.
  • All directors: if the company has more than 5 directors, you should provide the details for 5 principal directors (i.e. those that own the largest shareholdings in the company, or with the most control over voting rights or most significant influence over the running of the company).
  • At least two designated members: if the company that is the formation agent is a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).
  • The proprietor/partners: if the company that is the formation agent is an unincorporated business (i.e., not registered with Companies House) – such as a sole trader or partnership.


Finally, we will need to verify the identity of one individual. We will normally carry out the checks on one Person with Significant Control (PSC), but if there are none, then we will run the check on a proprietor or one director/designated member. To do this we will need you to provide a copy of:

  • One proof of identity document: a passport or photocard element of a driving licence; and
  • One proof of residential address document: usually a recent utility bill or photocard element of a driving licence (if this has not already been used to prove identity).


It is easy to upload copies of the documents and they are stored securely in a restricted access area within SharePoint. For more details regarding document security refer to our guide ‘How secure are my documents?’


To make the process of providing details very simple we have created one of our easy to use step by step flows. Click on the ‘Account’ tab and use the blue ‘Enter AML details’ button to get started. 


Note: that if the company that is the formation agent has been imported into Inform Direct then most of the PSC and director/designated member details that we require will be automatically populated into the ‘Enter AML details’ flow. In this case you will only need to check the information is correct, provide details of registration with a recognised supervisory body and upload the two documents for verification. 


There is no charge for us to carry out the AML checks on you/your firm and once completed you will be able to form companies without the need to supply further information about the identity of your clients or pay an AML check fee. 


In order to comply with Anti-Money Laundering regulations we must carry out the above checks before we can give you/your company access to our Professional Formation Process. Note that we will also be obliged to repeat the checks at regular intervals – normally every 3-4 years unless risk factors are identified that require checks to be carried out more frequently.