AI Agent Licensing Lawyer: Broker-Dealer, CFTC, Adviser, and MTL
Astraea Counsel determines which financial-services registration your AI agent triggers — broker-dealer, investment adviser, CFTC, or money transmitter — and where those regimes stack rather than substitute.
Lead attorney: Chanté Eliaszadeh, Founder & Principal
- Licensed in California · State Bar No. 335803 — verify
- Consultations scheduled directly with the attorney, not an intake desk
When founders call us
- Your agent executes trades for users and you need to know whether that makes you a broker-dealer
- Your agent gives portfolio guidance and the publisher’s exclusion may or may not survive the personalization in your product
- Your agent trades futures, swaps, or leveraged retail crypto and CFTC registration is in play
- Your agent moves customer funds or settles in stablecoins, which puts FinCEN and state money transmission on the table
- You are building agentic payments and need the money transmitter analysis before you launch, not after a state inquiry
- An investor or exchange partner has asked which registrations you hold and the answer has never been analyzed
What engagement gets you
- A registration analysis mapping what your agent actually does to the regime it answers to — the Exchange Act broker test, the Advisers Act three-part test, CFTC registration categories, and FinCEN and state money transmission — including where they stack
- An Advisers Act assessment of whether personalization defeats the publisher’s exclusion under Lowe v. SEC, drawn on your product’s actual architecture rather than its marketing
- A money transmitter determination for agentic payment flows, including whether the agent’s custody or control of funds triggers state licensure
- BSA analysis for agent-initiated transfers, including the question most programs have not answered: who the BSA customer is when an agent moves the money
- A sequencing plan when more than one regime applies, so registration and licensure do not block your launch in the wrong order
Recognition
- Quoted throughout "AI Agents Can Move Money – Lawyers Say Nobody Knows Who's Liable," part four of Sandmark's seven-part Agentic AI series (August 6, 2026), Chanté Eliaszadeh
- Author, "Complying With Calif. Crypto License Law's 11th-Hour Rewrite," Law360 Expert Analysis (August 13, 2026) — Chanté Eliaszadeh and Brandon Orewyler
- Astraea Counsel ranked in Chambers USA: Spotlight 2026 — Fintech (Los Angeles)
- Lawdragon 500 X — The Next Generation: Crypto Regulation, Disputes, Blockchain (2026), Chanté Eliaszadeh
- 2024 Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award, The Burton Awards — Chanté Eliaszadeh, co-author (White & Case)
- Panelist, American Bar Association Business Law Section 2026 Spring Meeting — Financial Services Technology Joint Subcommittee, on use cases tied to agentic-AI payment flows
Common Questions
Does my AI agent need a financial license?
It depends on what the agent does, not on what it is called. An agent that effects securities transactions for others implicates the Exchange Act broker test; one that gives personalized advice about securities for compensation implicates the Advisers Act, where the personalized character is often what breaks the publisher’s exclusion; one that trades futures, swaps, or leveraged retail crypto implicates CFTC registration; and one that moves customer funds implicates FinCEN and state money transmission. These regimes stack rather than substitute, so an agent can fall into more than one.
Who is the BSA customer when an agent sends the money?
This is the question agentic-payments programs most often have not answered. Bank Secrecy Act obligations run to a customer, and an autonomous agent is not a legal person — so the program has to identify the human or entity principal on whose behalf the agent acts, and be able to evidence that identification when the transfer is examined. Building the authorization record at the outset is considerably cheaper than reconstructing it under a regulator’s questions.
Can we launch first and register later?
Registration status is generally assessed by conduct, not intention, so operating without a required registration is the violation — not the failure to have applied. Where several regimes apply the sequencing also matters: state money transmitter licensure runs on state timelines that do not align with federal registration, and an exchange or banking partner will usually condition onboarding on the licenses being in place. The practical answer is to get the determination early, because it is the input to the launch plan rather than a step within it.
Book a Call With Chanté Eliaszadeh
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