Australia’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism (AML) regime has undergone its most significant overhaul in nearly 20 years, with new obligations for a range of industries including the legal profession.
These changes started on 1 July 2026 and apply to all law firms like ours, together with accountants and real estate agents. You may have extra steps to complete when you engage with us, but it’s all for good reason.
Why AML laws are changing
The AML reforms are driven by a simple objective: to close gaps in Australia’s financial system that can be exploited by organised crime and prevent illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorism financing.
Historically, AML obligations have focused on banks and financial institutions. However, these obligations extend to a wide range of services (called designated services) provided by lawyers, accountants and real estate agents.
What has changed regarding AML in Australia?
From 1 July 2026, services that fall within the description of designated services provided by law firms were brought within the AML regime for the first time.
The laws do not apply to all legal work. They apply to specific services – typically those involving financial transactions or asset structuring.
Some of the designated services now subject to AML reporting obligations include:
- assisting with buying or selling real estate or businesses;
- managing client money or trust accounts;
- setting up companies or trusts; and
- acting on behalf of a client in financial transactions.
What are your adviser’s AML obligations?
As a provider of designated services, we are required to complete a range of compliance measures including more in-depth client identification and verification processes. These processes must be completed often before we can start taking steps to progress a transaction. This is where clients will notice the biggest change in procedure.
Every firm will have its own AML program to manage its obligations. To assist us with managing our obligations under the AML laws, Redchip has partnered with AMLHUB, a third-party provider of these identification and verification processes. AMLHUB has years of experience managing these processes for law firms, accountants and real estate agents in New Zealand, who have had similar AML laws for many years.
What this means for our clients
For our clients, the most noticeable impact will be additional checks and information requests when you wish to engage us to act for you on certain services.
From 1 July 2026, you may be asked to:
- provide identification documents (such as a driver’s licence or passport);
- confirm your date of birth, residential address and background details;
- provide details of your business structure and beneficial owners of the business;
- explain the purpose of a transaction;
- provide information about the source of funds or wealth in some matters;
- for companies, confirm nominee directors/shareholders; and
- for trusts, provide the trust deed.
These requests are not a reflection on you or your business. We are required to make these requests under the AML laws.
We take the privacy of our clients and their information very seriously and we remain committed to protecting the personal and confidential information that you provide to us during these processes.
What you can do
The key takeaway is that these processes will become a standard part of doing business in Australia, particularly in property, business and structuring matters. Providing information promptly will help avoid delays and ensure transactions proceed smoothly.
For more detailed information on the new AML regime, including how Redchip will be handling its AML obligations and answers to frequently asked questions, visit our client info hub here.
Further reading
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