Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Laws
Information for clients of Grindal Legal
Effective date 15 July 2026 | Version 1.0
1. What you need to know
New laws to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism took effect on 1 July 2026. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) (AML/CTF Act) now applies to certain services provided by law firms, known as designated services. These obligations apply to all law firms in Australia that provide designated services, and Grindal Legal is enrolled with AUSTRAC, the Australian Government agency that administers these laws.
s to collect and verify certain information about you, your business and the transaction or matter before we act, and to keep that information up to date for as long as our relationship with you continues. This process is known as client due diligence, or CDD. This information sheet explains what that means for you.
2. Which of our services are affected
The designated services we provide include:
(a) assisting with the purchase, sale or transfer of residential or commercial real estate, including conveyancing;
(b) assisting with transfers of real estate otherwise than by sale, including transfers of property from the trustee of a trust to a beneficiary and other transfers for no consideration;
(c) assisting with the sale or transfer of real estate in the course of administering a deceased estate, including transfers of estate property to beneficiaries;
(d) receiving, holding or managing your money or property in the course of providing those services, including through our trust account;
(e) assisting with arranging equity or debt financing for a company, trust or other legal arrangement; and
(f) establishing companies and trusts, including registering a company or preparing a trust deed.
Two points about how this applies in practice:
(a) Deceased estates. Obtaining a grant of probate or letters of administration is not of itself a designated service, and estate administration alone will not usually require these checks. However, the sale of estate property, and the transfer of estate property to beneficiaries, generally will. In those matters our client due diligence focuses on the executor or administrator who instructs us, so we will ask the executor or administrator to complete identification even though they are acting in a representative capacity.
(b) Transfers out of a trust. Where property is transferred from a trustee to a beneficiary, including for no consideration, we will ask for the trust deed, the trustee's resolution and evidence of the beneficiary's entitlement. In most cases these documents will satisfy our obligations without further inquiry.
There are certain designated services that we do not provide as a matter of firm policy. These include acting in the purchase or sale of a company or business entity, selling or transferring shelf companies, acting as or arranging a nominee director, officeholder or shareholder, and providing a registered office or principal place of business address. If your matter would require one of these services, we will tell you at the outset and, where appropriate, refer you elsewhere.
Not all of our services are designated services. If you engage us solely to obtain advice, or to resolve a dispute, the AML/CTF requirements may not apply. However, our experience is that matters which begin outside the AML/CTF laws often develop so as to come within them, for example where advice on a proposed transaction proceeds to the transaction itself. In those cases we may conduct client due diligence at the outset of the relationship to avoid delay and inconvenience later. Our staff can discuss this with you when you first contact us.
3. What we will ask you to provide
The information we require depends on who you are and the nature of your matter. In general terms:
(a) Individuals and sole traders. Your full name, date of birth and residential address, verified against identity documents such as a current driver licence or passport. If you do not hold photographic identification, alternative pathways are available and we will discuss these with you.
(b) Companies, partnerships, trusts and associations. Registration details, the documents that govern the entity (such as a constitution, partnership agreement or trust deed), and the identity of the individuals who ultimately own or control it, known as beneficial owners. For trusts, this extends to trustees, appointors and certain other office holders.
(c) Representatives. If you are acting on behalf of someone else, evidence of your authority to do so, such as a power of attorney, letter of appointment, board resolution, or a grant of probate or letters of administration.
(d) Matter information. Information about the service you require and its purpose, and in some cases financial and transaction documents such as bank statements or contracts.
We will also ask whether you, or a beneficial owner or representative, hold or have held a prominent public position in Australia, overseas or in an international organisation. A person in such a position is known as a politically exposed person, or PEP, and includes senior politicians, judges, ambassadors, senior military officers, senior government officials and senior officers of state owned entities or international organisations. Being a PEP does not prevent us from acting for you, but the law requires us to make additional checks.
We use a secure electronic verification platform operated by a third party provider to collect and verify most of this information. In most cases you will receive a link by email or text message asking you to identify yourself and upload the required information and documents. If you would prefer to complete verification in person at our office, please let us know.
4. Our onboarding process
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Initial scoping | When you first contact us we will collect basic information about you and your matter, including the type of entity through which you operate, your contact details, and the nature of the legal assistance you require. We will then confirm whether the matter involves a designated service. |
| 2. Client due diligence | If the matter involves a designated service, we will send you a link to our electronic verification platform, or arrange verification with you directly. We are generally required by law to complete this process before we begin providing the designated service. We will review the information you supply and may have further questions. |
| 3. Engagement | Once we are satisfied that our client due diligence requirements have been met, we will confirm the scope of our engagement and provide our costs disclosure statement for your acceptance. If you accept our terms, the matter proceeds. |
In limited circumstances the law permits us to begin work while some verification steps are completed, subject to strict statutory deadlines. Whether this is available depends on the nature of the matter and its risk profile, and certain checks, including sanctions screening, must always be completed before we act. We will tell you if this applies to your matter.
In rare cases, if we cannot satisfy our client due diligence requirements, we will not be able to accept your instructions.
5. What if I am an existing client?
If you were a client of the firm before 1 July 2026, you do not need to complete client due diligence for matters already on foot. However, we will need to complete these checks if you instruct us in a new matter involving a designated service, and we may need to complete or update them if circumstances change, for example if the directors, shareholders or controllers of your business change, if the nature of our relationship with you changes, or if our obligations otherwise require it.
6. Additional information we may require
Depending on your circumstances and the nature of your matter, the law may require us to seek further information to verify your identity, understand who we are acting for, or understand the transaction. This may include information or documentation about your source of funds or source of wealth, further detail about beneficial owners, or further explanation of the purpose of a transaction. Requests of this kind are a normal part of the regime and do not imply any concern about you.
7. Payments and funds
Two firm policies relevant to payments apply under our AML/CTF program:
(a) we do not accept physical currency of $50,000 or more in connection with any transaction. If your matter involves such funds, we will ask you to deposit the money into your own bank account and make the payment by bank transfer; and
(b) we do not accept payment in, or act in transactions where consideration passes in, virtual assets such as cryptocurrency.
You should also be aware that the law requires reporting entities, including law firms, to report certain large cash transactions to AUSTRAC.
8. What if you refuse or cannot provide information?
If you do not provide the information we are required to collect, we may be unable to act for you. If work has already commenced, we may be required to cease acting. We may also be required to cease acting where continuing would be inconsistent with our legal or professional obligations.
You should be aware that:
(a) the AML/CTF Act may require us to make reports to government agencies, and the law may prohibit us from telling you that a report has been made;
(b) if we decline to act, or cease acting, the law may prohibit us from giving you our reasons; and
(c) no adverse inference should be drawn from the absence of an explanation in those circumstances.
These matters are also addressed in our costs agreement.
9. Will there be a cost?
The client due diligence procedures we are required to undertake involve searches of government and commercial databases, for example to verify identity documents and confirm registrations with ASIC. The fees charged to us for these searches and for electronic verification will be passed on to you as disbursements. Please refer to our costs disclosure statement and costs agreement for details, or speak with us if you have any questions.
10. How your information will be used
We take privacy and data security seriously. Information you provide is collected and handled in accordance with Australian privacy laws, our professional duty of confidentiality, and the requirements of the AML/CTF Act. We may disclose your personal information to our verification provider for the purpose of complying with our legal obligations. We do not use your information for marketing purposes and we do not sell or trade client data. The law requires us to retain records collected for AML/CTF purposes for seven years after our relationship with you ends. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.
11. Ongoing monitoring
Our obligations do not end at onboarding. We are required to monitor our business relationship with you for the duration of the engagement and to keep your client due diligence information current. This means we may ask you to confirm or update information from time to time, including where your circumstances change or where we conduct a periodic review of your file. Your assistance with these requests helps us to act for you without interruption.
12. Further information
If you have any questions about how these laws affect your matter, please contact your usual Grindal Legal contact or our AML/CTF Compliance Officer. General information about the regime is available from AUSTRAC at www.austrac.gov.au.
