Hibernate provides both Interceptors and Event listeners - they should do the trick, as long as you dont mind using non-JPA features View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3994196#3994196 Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&p=3994196