By Jesse Sharp and Christopher Mackie.
Managing Partner Jesse Sharp and Head of Property Law Christopher Mackie combine broad commercial and litigation experience with deep expertise in Victorian real property transactions. Their collective experience assures clients of support with property and commercial matters of all scales. They take a flexible and common-sense approach, ensuring P&B Law provides clients the practical support they need to assist them to succeed and grow.

Law firms will be required to complete AML/CTF compliance checks

By now most of us are used to being asked by our financial organisations to prove or confirm personal and business details. These are sometimes called ‘Know your client’ or KYC obligations. Banks and other financial institutions have been required to make these checks since Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML / CTF) regime was introduced in 2006.

From 1 July 2026, a wider range of professional services organisations will be required to complete checks and reports under this regime. The new obligations will apply to law firms, conveyancers, accountants, real estate agents and similar professionals across Australia.

There is nothing you need to do right now. But as the changes get closer, we will keep you updated.

We will let you know in advance about the information and documents we may need to ask for once the changes take effect and as we are instructed to act on new matters.

What will this mean for your transactions?

For some types of work, we will be required by law to carry out some additional checks before and during a matter.

They are most likely to apply when we assist you with:

buying or selling real estate;
business sales and purchases;
administering deceased estates; and
incorporation of new companies or establishment of a new trust.

The checks required for each type of transaction may be different so where permitted we will let you know if and when they apply to your situation.

What information will we need?

When these changes take effect, we will need to be able to:

Verify your identity — we may ask you for identification documents, even if you are an existing client.
Check the source of funds — we may need to understand how you are funding a transaction, particularly if the money is not coming via an Australian financial institution.
Confirm the purpose of a transaction — we may ask some additional questions about the matter.

In some cases we will also need to ask about the ultimate beneficial owner as well as third parties, such as companies, partnerships or trusts that are also involved in the transaction.

Any information you provide will only be used for the purpose you provided it. We will handle your information in accordance with our legal and privacy obligations.

Will this cost?

There will be a small administrative cost which the firm will incur as part of engaging with third party providers to assist in undertaking the required searches and this cost will be passed on as a disbursement on the invoice.

What happens now?

To prepare for the changes we are updating our onboarding processes, training our team and putting a compliance program in place.

There is no need at this stage to provide us with any documentation or further information. When it is required, we will let you know.

Talk to us about your goals

As always, whenever you engage P&B Law to help with your transaction, we’ll talk through your business or financial goals and situation. We’ll make sure we understand the context of the transaction and what you’re trying to achieve.

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Extra checks to prevent money laundering coming from 1 July