Professional services: what the register shows the world
The Dutch trade register shows the legal form, the partners or directors, and the ultimate beneficial owners of a professional services firm, but it does not show whether an individual professional is licensed, in good standing, or under a disciplinary measure. Anyone contracting with a Dutch law, accountancy, tax advisory or notarial practice reads the corporate shell in one register and the professional's standing in another, and the two are not cross-referenced publicly.
Why this arises here
Professional services in the Netherlands are commonly organised as a partnership of personal holding companies, a cooperative, or a layered structure combining both, because the sector regulator, not company law, restricts who may hold control. A notary, a chartered accountant or a member of the Dutch Bar can be required to keep voting control inside qualified professionals. The trade register records the corporate layer that results from that restriction. It was never built to record compliance with the restriction itself, which is why the register and the regulator answer different questions.
The mechanics, in short
The Chamber of Commerce trade register records the entity's legal form, its registered office, its partners or directors, and its ultimate beneficial owners. For a partnership such as a maatschap (professional partnership) or a vennootschap onder firma (general partnership), only the partners' names and the trade name are filed; the partnership agreement that actually governs profit-sharing, admission and exit stays private.
Where the practice is run through a company, the question moves from a general one to a corporate law and governance question: many firms use a personal holding B.V. for each partner, sitting above a shared practice B.V. or a cooperative. The register shows that layered structure. It does not show the members' agreement between the holding companies, which is a private contract, and it does not show which partner is entitled to vote on admitting a new one.
The pattern in professional services
Two features are specific to this sector and would be wrong to assume elsewhere. First, larger practices, particularly in accountancy and law, often sit under a coöperatie u.a. (cooperative with excluded member liability) with each partner's personal holding company as a member. The cooperative's own filing shows the members' names but not their capital contribution or voting weight, which the members' agreement fixes privately.
Second, a firm that holds client money, a notary, a lawyer, or a real estate agent, typically routes it through a stichting derdengelden (third-party funds foundation), a separate legal entity with its own trade register filing and its own board, usually the same partners wearing a different hat. The foundation's accounts are rarely public, because a foundation files financial statements only where the general filing duty for undertakings applies to it, and a pure funds-holding foundation commonly does not meet that test.
A situation that arises only here: a partner's departure. The trade register update shows a change of director or partner at the practice entity. It says nothing about whether that partner remains licensed to practise, which is fixed instead by the professional's own register: the Dutch Bar for lawyers, the NBA register for accountants, the notarial register for notaries. A departure that looks final in the trade register can leave a licensing question entirely open, which matters directly if a dispute over the departure follows, for example an application for interim relief between professional partners, or if the departing partner faces a question addressed separately in a director's notification of inability to pay.
What to check
Before relying on the trade register for a professional services counterparty, check four things. Which regulator actually licenses this profession, since each keeps its own register and none is linked to the trade register entry. Whether the entity in front of you is the practice itself or a personal holding company one layer up. Whether a separate third-party funds foundation exists alongside the practice entity, and if so, whether its accounts are filed anywhere at all. And whether the UBO register entry matches what you were told about the ownership layers, rather than assuming the two are identical.
What the registers show, side by side
| Register | Held by | Shows | Does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade register (Handelsregister) | Chamber of Commerce | Legal form, registered office, partners or directors, ultimate beneficial owners | Professional licensing status, disciplinary history, voting or profit arrangements between partners |
| Professional regulator register | The relevant professional body, varies by profession | Individual licensing status and standing | Any link to the trade register entity the professional practises through |
| Third-party funds foundation filing | Chamber of Commerce, where the foundation itself is registered | The foundation's existence and its board | Its financial statements, in most cases |
What this does not cover
- It does not cover the disciplinary record of an individual professional, which sits with the regulator, not the trade register.
- It does not assess the solvency or the quality of a professional services firm.
- It does not extend to sectors outside professional services, where the ownership and licensing pattern is different.
- It does not replace a direct check of the specific regulator's own published list for the profession in question.
Questions
Does the Dutch trade register show whether a lawyer or notary is licensed?
No. The trade register shows the entity and its partners or directors. Licensing status sits with the professional's own regulator and has to be checked separately.
Why do professional services firms in the Netherlands use a holding company for each partner?
Because sector rules restrict voting control to qualified professionals, separately from company law. A personal holding company lets a partner hold an economic stake without the practice itself breaching that restriction, and the arrangement between holdings stays in a private members' agreement, not in the trade register.
Is a stichting derdengelden the same entity as the practice?
No. It is typically a separate legal entity with its own filing, often run by the same partners, set up specifically to hold client money apart from the practice's own assets.
For the same register question outside this sector, see how it plays out in real estate filings or, for a non-Dutch comparison, in a Swedish structure. Where the full picture matters more than a single filing, a structure report sets out the entity, its filed layers, and what remains private, drawn from primary sources. For structuring work generally, see the corporate practice.
This note is maintained by Sanne de Wit, who works on structures, holding arrangements and tax positions.
Last legal review: 2026-09-29