ML/TF risk questions for a suburban law firm

People search “law firm ML TF risk questions” when a two-partner suburban firm opens a blank risk assessment and starts drafting questions for the client instead of for the partnership. Checked against AUSTRAC's risk assessment step on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. The written assessment itself is the ML/TF risk assessment for Tranche 2. A client-facing form is the AML customer risk assessment questionnaire. The sector map is /tranche-2.

Questions for the partners, not the client

A suburban law firm often does a mix of wills, minor litigation, and a conveyancing file most months. The risk assessment asks which of those are designated services, and how the firm is used. It does not start with a form the client fills in at reception. The client form, if you use one, comes after you know what you are trying to learn.

Write answers you could show a new clerk. 'Sometimes' is not an answer. Count the conveyancing files, say whether the trust account receives settlement money, and name the partner who can tell the firm to wait. Proliferation financing belongs in the same assessment as money laundering and terrorism financing, even when a suburban practice expects the answer to be uncommon.

• Name the designated services. Separate advice that is outside the regime from the matters your program says are in it.
• Record whether you hold trust money. A trust account that receives settlement funds is a fact about the firm, not a line you discover on a client form.
• Record how clients arrive. A referrer you have never met is a different channel from a neighbour who has used you for years.
• Name who can pause a file. If neither partner will stop a settlement, the questions are theatre.

A suburban firm's question list

Where the law-firm questions stop

This page is the question list for a suburban law firm. It is not the risk assessment write-up, and it is not a form you hand the client. Those are the ML/TF risk assessment for Tranche 2 and the AML customer risk assessment questionnaire.

What the client pays

On FreeAML the firm suite is A$0. The firm emails the client a link. Verification is client-pays. On the public list a personal KYC check is A$20 and a company or trust KYB check is A$40. Use KYB when the customer is a company or a trust. Answering the firm's risk questions is not a customer check, and each verification the assessment leads you to require is client-pays. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not answer your risk questions or approve the risk assessment.

Frequently Asked Questions