Impor­tant update: Prepar­ing for Anti-Mon­ey (AML) Leg­is­la­tion Reforms Effec­tive 1 July 2026

Upcom­ing Changes to Anti-Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Requirements

As part of these require­ments, we may need to col­lect iden­ti­ty doc­u­ments or addi­tion­al finan­cial infor­ma­tion dur­ing our engage­ment process. If you are act­ing on behalf of a com­pa­ny, trust, or oth­er struc­ture, we may also request doc­u­men­ta­tion con­firm­ing own­er­ship and con­trol. This ensures we under­stand who we are work­ing with, their source of funds and com­ply with the new obligations.

We are prepar­ing now to make this tran­si­tion as seam­less as pos­si­ble. We will pro­vide fur­ther updates soon on how these changes may affect you.

Fre­quent­ly Asked Questions:

Q: Why do you need my iden­ti­fi­ca­tion?
Under Australia’s anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing (AML) laws, we are legal­ly required to ver­i­fy the iden­ti­ty of all clients before pro­vid­ing des­ig­nat­ed legal services.

Q: I’ve worked with you before, why now?
These oblig­a­tions apply to every client engage­ment, includ­ing exist­ing rela­tion­ships. Even if we’ve worked togeth­er pre­vi­ous­ly, we must com­plete these checks under the new AML laws.

Q: Does this apply to every legal service?

The AML laws apply to all lawyers, accoun­tants and real estate agents. The AML laws relat­ing to ver­i­fi­ca­tion of ​‘source of funds’ apply to ser­vices which pre­dom­i­nant­ly deal with client funds. Exam­ples would be buy­ing or sell­ing prop­er­ty, busi­ness­es or com­pa­nies. Lawyers assist­ing in set­ting up cor­po­rate struc­tures, pro­vid­ing reg­is­tered office ser­vices and act­ing in a direc­tor­ship role are also captured. 

Q: What hap­pens if I don’t pro­vide the request­ed infor­ma­tion?
The AML laws require us to com­plete cer­tain ver­i­fi­ca­tion steps before we can begin, or con­tin­ue, work­ing with you. If we can­not obtain the nec­es­sary doc­u­men­ta­tion, we may be unable to pro­ceed with your mat­ter or main­tain our busi­ness rela­tion­ship. These require­ments apply to all clients and ensure we meet our legal obligations.

Q: Is my data secure?
Yes, we only use your infor­ma­tion for com­pli­ance and store it securely.

Q: What does ​‘source of funds’, mean and why do you need it?
For cer­tain trans­ac­tions involv­ing client funds, we are required to con­firm where the funds orig­i­nate. The AML laws are intend­ed to iden­ti­fy and help reduce the risk of mon­ey laun­der­ing activ­i­ties in Australia.

Q: What if I’m act­ing for a com­pa­ny, trust, or self-man­aged super fund (SMSF)?
We may need doc­u­men­ta­tion show­ing who ulti­mate­ly owns or con­trols the enti­ty. This is part of our legal oblig­a­tion to under­stand the true own­ers behind com­plex structures.

Q: Do I need to pro­vide this infor­ma­tion before work begins?
In short, yes. In most instances com­pli­ance checks will be straight for­ward but the more com­pli­cat­ed the rel­e­vant trans­ac­tion or struc­ture is, the more com­pli­cat­ed the checks may need to be.

Q: I’ve already com­plet­ed a VOI check. Isn’t that the same as KYC?
VOI (Ver­i­fi­ca­tion of Iden­ti­ty) is just one com­po­nent of KYC (Know Your Cus­tomer). AML laws require a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of who our client is, how they intend to use our ser­vices, and where the source of their funds orig­i­nates, so as to reduce the abil­i­ty of crim­i­nals to use their advis­ers as a way of hid­ing pro­ceeds of crimes, par­tic­u­lar­ly through com­plex structures.

In the mean­time, if you have any ques­tions, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us.