The Queensland Law Society has received queries from practitioners asking whether there is anything they should do if they believe that they are not providing a designated service under the AML/CTF Act.
QLS would suggest that for those practitioners, they should consider the following:
- Specifically go through the definition of professional ‘designated services’ in Table 6 of s6(5B) of the AML/CTF Act and assess why you believe you will not be providing such a service as from 1 July 2026.
- If you do not believe that you will be providing such a service, document this assessment with an explanation as to why you believe that you will fall outside the scope of these services and date this internal record.
- Ensure that you educate and communicate this policy to all your staff (not just the solicitors) to ensure that no one within your practice inadvertently provides a designated service – scope creep is a major issue for those practices that believe that they are out of the AML/CTF regime. If you provide one designated service, you will be required to enrol with AUSTRAC and ensure that you are compliant with the regime. You may wish to consider some process in the onboarding of your clients that flags this issue for your staff. Remember that all new staff will need to be informed of this policy going forward.
- For those practitioners who manage a trust account, please remember that you cannot allow your client to use your trust account as a defacto bank account even if you are not providing a designated service eg: you may find yourself providing a designated service under item 3 of Table 6 if you agree to forward your client’s surplus trust funds to a third party to pay an outstanding debt.
- Revisit your position and policy regularly, at least annually if your practice is static in size and services but if you decide to merge or introduce new legal services, you must assess whether you will then fall within the regime at that time. Once again, you should document your review and if necessary, update.
- Subscribe to updates | AUSTRAC – this keeps you up to date of any future AML/CTF changes which could impact your practice at a later date.
- Remember that even if you are not caught by the AML/CTF regime, you will still have ongoing professional, ethical and trust accounting obligations and statutory duties such as the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) eg: dealing with proceeds of crime.
At some stage in the future, AUSTRAC may come knocking on your door asking why you have not enrolled (they have extensive powers).
Documenting what you have done in determining that you do not believe you were within the regime will certainly assist and support your position in the eyes of the regulator.
Share this article