8 Common Struggles With Source of Funds and Source of Wealth
Most firms have the policy. The hard part is turning it into consistent decisions.
Collecting more documents won’t fix it. Connecting what you already know will.
The SRA’s 2024–25 thematic review found 11% of files needing source of funds checks had none. In 18%, the evidence wasn’t properly scrutinised. In 8%, the recorded source didn’t match the ledger.
None of those gaps come down to a shortage of paperwork. They appear between teams: the earlier assessment sits in another office’s matter, the relationship partner knows the client sold a business, and finance can see where the money actually came from. The person reviewing the current matter often sees none of it.
This ebook breaks down eight weaknesses in how law firms assess source of funds (SoF) and source of wealth (SoW), and where technology makes the assessment easier to carry out and explain. Each section includes what the EU’s AMLR 2027 means for cross-border firms.
Inside the ebook:
- Why a written policy still leaves too much to individual interpretation
- How client knowledge gets stranded across offices, matters and systems
- The difference between evidence collected and evidence assessed
- What happens when funding changes after onboarding
- Why corporate clients, third-party funders and complex structures break standard workflows
- How to explain why similar cases produced different decisions
- Keeping clients and third parties cooperative when the questions get personal
- Reusing sensitive information without overexposing it
- Eight questions to test your firm’s current approach
Download the ebook to see where your SoF and SoW process is losing the thread, and how to close the gaps. Get your ebook today.