New Anti-Money Laundering Rules

What Our Conveyancing and Legal Clients Need to Know

Conveyancing & Compliance

From 1 July 2026, Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws have been extended to catch thousands more businesses, including legal practitioners and conveyancers. These reforms, often called "Tranche 2," bring real estate, conveyancing, legal services, accounting, and dealers in precious stones and metals within a regime that previously applied mainly to banks and other financial institutions. Here is what these changes mean for our clients on the Island.

What do the new laws require of us?

As a regulated business, we must now meet a range of additional obligations, including:

• implementing an AML/CTF program,
• conducting customer due diligence, including verifying the identity of clients (and, where relevant, of companies, trusts and the people who control them),
• reporting suspicious matters to AUSTRAC, and
• keeping relevant records.

Is everything we do now regulated?

No. Only certain services, known as designated services, trigger these obligations. For a conveyancing or legal practice, designated services generally include matters such as:

• buying, selling or otherwise transferring real property on a client's behalf,
• receiving, holding, controlling or managing client money or other assets in connection with a transaction, including funds held in trust for settlement,
• helping to create, operate, manage, sell or transfer a company, trust or other legal entity, and
• acting as, or arranging for someone else to act as, a registered office, agent, nominee director or nominee shareholder.

This list is not exhaustive, and AUSTRAC's website sets out the full detail. Many everyday matters, such as general legal advice or preparing a straightforward will, are not designated services. Conveyancing transactions, however, will very often be caught.

What will change for you as a client?

If your matter involves a designated service, you may notice our onboarding and engagement process looks a little different from now on. We may need to ask additional questions, request identification or other supporting documents earlier than before, or seek information about the source of funds involved in a transaction. This applies even to clients we have worked with for many years, since the law requires this due diligence regardless of the length or history of the relationship.

The common thread

These changes are not optional, and they are here to stay. They reflect a national effort to stop property and legal transactions being used to launder money or finance crime, and compliance is now part of how we do business. We will always try to keep the extra steps as simple and unobtrusive as possible. If you have any questions about how these changes may affect your matter, please feel free to get in touch.