Confirm your firm's service
Not everything a law firm does is a designated service. The obligations attach to particular services rather than to the practice as a whole, so the first task is to work out which parts of your work are in scope and which are not. Check AUSTRAC's professional designated services definitions against your own matter types.
The services sit in table 6 of subsection 6(5B) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. AUSTRAC's list covers "assisting in the planning or execution of a transaction to sell, buy or transfer real estate", the same for "a body corporate or legal arrangement", "receiving, holding, controlling or managing a person's property to help in the planning or execution of a transaction", "assisting in organising, planning, or executing a transaction for equity or debt financing relating to a body corporate or legal arrangement", "selling or transferring a shelf company", "assisting in the planning or execution of the creation or restructuring a body corporate or legal arrangement", acting or arranging for someone to act on a person's behalf in particular positions in one, and "providing a registered office address or principal place of business address of a body corporate or legal arrangement".
Three things about that list matter more than the list itself. Table 6 is profession neutral, so it captures the service and not the job title. The obligations apply "if you provide a designated service in table 6 from 1 July 2026", and only where the service has a geographical link to Australia. And "litigation generally won't fall under the scope of table 6": items 1 and 2 also carve out a transaction that is "pursuant to, or resulting from, an order of a court or tribunal", and that exception covers services carried out after the order is made. Exemptions apply to legal aid commissions, community legal centres and barristers acting for Australian government bodies.
AUSTRAC's own distinction is the one firms get wrong. A conveyancer engaged to transfer real property is captured. "A solicitor engaged to provide the conveyancer with advice on the legal effect of terms in a contract for sale" is an ancillary service and is not.
When the service starts
This is where a legal matter parts company with our real estate guide, which says the agency agreement is the usual starting point for the party you represent. For a table 6 matter, "a person starts providing the designated service when they act on instructions in relation to a transaction to buy, sell or transfer property and a relevant transaction exists". A transaction will typically exist when there is at least one buyer and one seller, and from the point that either "in a private treaty or where an auction doesn't meet reserve, when a buyer and seller, verbally or in writing, agree to the sale price of the property prior to the payment of any deposit or the exchange of any contracts", or "in an auction that meets reserve, at the point a buyer is successful at auction". So accepting instructions and drawing a draft contract is not yet a designated service while no transaction exists.
Initial CDD ordinarily comes before the service starts. You can delay it where it is essential to avoid interrupting the ordinary course of business and there is a low additional risk of money laundering or terrorism financing occurring, which is a narrow permission rather than a general one.
What follows from all that is the practical sequence. Once a matter is in scope, you check every client on it, from property buyers to company set-ups, and you keep the evidence and the decision with the file.
Prepare and review the matter file
- Set up the practice. Start by confirming enrolment, your compliance officer, staff responsibilities, and an approved risk assessment and AML/CTF program. AUSTRAC's enrolment guidance is the place to start.
- Identify the parties. Next, record the client, entity type, representatives and relevant beneficial owners. You'll want to confirm their authority to act and collect the information your program requires.
- Complete CDD. This is where you collect identity evidence, understand the matter and assess risk. Resolve any screening concerns and apply enhanced measures where they're needed. Keep in mind that a Link result is part of the evidence, not a decision to act.
- Record the decision. The responsible practitioner checks the current evidence, records the reason and assigns any outstanding actions. If delayed CDD is permitted, please record the applicable conditions and deadlines, because it isn't a general exemption.
- Review changes. Changes to the client, ownership, funding or the scope of the instruction can require further review, so it helps to keep decisions and follow-up work connected to the file.
Report through AUSTRAC Online
Suspicious matter reports
Please record when a reportable suspicion arose and restrict access to the matter. Terrorism-financing suspicions have a 24-hour deadline from that point, while other SMRs are generally due within three business days after the day of suspicion. Escalate concerns promptly to authorised staff and take care to protect against tipping off. Check the SMR rules, forms and deadlines.
Legal professional privilege
AUSTRAC's position is that the obligation "to provide information to us doesn't extend to an obligation to provide us with information subject to LPP". Where all of the information making up the grounds of suspicion in an SMR is privileged, no SMR and no LPP form is required. Otherwise you report to the extent possible without disclosing the privileged information, and you also submit an LPP form, which is a written notice in a form approved by the AUSTRAC CEO. Describing privileged information in that form "does not, of itself, amount to a waiver of privilege", and failing to submit one may attract civil penalties.
On timing, the LPP form goes in at the same time as the report it relates to: with a TTR, within ten business days; with an SMR, within 24 hours where the suspicion relates to terrorism financing, and otherwise within five business days. That five business days is an extension on the ordinary three, specifically to allow time to consider whether privilege attaches and to submit the form.
AUSTRAC also notes that privilege "doesn't apply to everything legal professionals have a duty to keep confidential", and is generally narrower than a practitioner's general duty of confidentiality. Its own advice is that if you are "in any doubt as to whether LPP applies, you should seek independent legal advice as part of your decision-making process". Read AUSTRAC's legal professional privilege guidance. Nothing on this page tells you whether privilege applies in your matter, and firms should obtain their own advice.
Threshold transaction reports
A designated service involving A$10,000 or more in physical currency triggers a TTR, and you submit it "within 10 business days after the day the transaction takes place". The threshold applies to foreign currency of the same value.
The limit of this one is worth stating in AUSTRAC's words, because it decides the question for a practice that runs a trust account: "TTR obligations apply to physical currency (notes and coins) only. Electronic transfers, cheques and card payments do not trigger TTR requirements, even if they are in amounts of A$10,000 or more." So a trust account receipt or a settlement payment made by electronic transfer or cheque is not a TTR, at any amount. And where a client's bank statement shows cash deposits of A$10,000 or more, the TTR is the bank's obligation and not your practice's. Cash broken into smaller amounts is a separate question, and it is an SMR one rather than a TTR one. Check AUSTRAC's TTR guidance.
Annual compliance reports
The next reporting period is 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, with submission open from 1 July to 30 September 2027. An administrator submits it through your AUSTRAC Online account. Check who must report and the applicable exceptions.
Whichever report it is, please use the current AUSTRAC Online forms, and keep the submitted version, lodgement reference and receipt with the restricted reporting record. Just remember that creating a draft or downloading an export does not establish lodgement or acceptance.
Retain the evidence
Keep CDD records for seven years after the business relationship ends or an occasional transaction is completed. Transaction and program records have different retention triggers, so it's best to set retention by record type and make sure you keep access when staff or providers change. AUSTRAC's record-keeping requirements have the full detail.
Our own side of this is built under ShareRing's ISO 27001 information security programme, and the identity evidence stays with the matter file rather than with us.
If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can start free in a couple of minutes. Every account comes with a sandbox full of sample matters, so you can explore the whole workflow before anything real happens.