Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing
Effective
1 July 2026
Introduction
From 1 July 2026, Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws apply to certain legal services.
Helping combat money laundering and terrorism financing in Australia is now a legislated responsibility of the legal profession (among others) as it has been in the UK and New Zealand for many years.
As a result, Allen Legal must meet obligations imposed on it under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).
Depending on the legal services you require, we may ask you to provide information and documents to verify your identity and obtain information about your business, ownership structure, source of funds or source of wealth.
If we are unable to obtain the information required to meet our obligations, we may be unable to provide legal services to you.
Information collected for these purposes is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Designated Services
The new obligations will apply when we provide certain legal services that are classified as “designated services”.
Designated services include legal services connected with:
- property or business transactions
- handling client money or assets for a transaction
- forming or restructuring companies, trusts or partnerships
- providing nominee roles or registered office services.
We are obliged to complete certain checks before providing designated legal services. These are referred to as Client Due Diligence (CDD) checks.
For other legal services we provide, we may still request certain information where appropriate, to ensure that we meet our statutory and professional obligations.
No Friction
We are committed to making compliance with the AML/CTF obligations as efficient as possible.
CDD checks will reflect the nature of legal services to be provided. Thus, what we identify as a higher risk matter may require you to provide more detail than you would for a lower risk matter.