Anti-Money Laundering
Why we have to ask about where your money's coming from:
Let's get the irritating bit out of the way first:
yes, for some transactions I'm going to ask you for photo ID, proof of address, (and sometimes) proof of exactly where your money came from — even if you're the most obviously law-abiding person to ever walk into a Dunedin law office.
What I’ll need from you.
Photo ID — ideally a current passport. If you don't have one, a current driver's licence plus one other form of photo ID.
Proof of your address — something dated within the last six months (a utility bill or bank statement usually does it).
If you're not bringing these in to me in person, everything needs to be certified and mailed (!) to me (not emailed sadly).
If you're acting for a trust, company, or on someone else's behalf — extra detail about who's actually behind it (the technical term is "beneficial ownership").
If any of this feels over the top, I get it. I'm happy to talk you through exactly why I need a particular piece of paper before you hand it over.
How we got here
Let’s blame the Panama Papers.
In 2016, a massive leak of documents showed that New Zealand's very light-touch rules around foreign trusts had made us an unexpectedly popular destination for people overseas who wanted to hide money — quietly, legally (at the time), with a nice clean "New Zealand" stamp on the paperwork.
It wasn't a great look. An official inquiry followed (the Shewan Report), and one of its recommendations was blunt: stop letting lawyers and accountants off the hook when it comes to checking who their clients actually are and where their money's from. The government agreed, and from 1 July 2018, lawyers got pulled into the same anti-money-laundering rules banks had been living with for years.
So the honest answer to "why do you need my passport" is: a small number of people used our trust system as a hiding place, got caught out spectacularly on the world stage, and now everyone pays the paperwork price for it — including perfectly ordinary Dunedin clients, and their perfectly ordinary lawyer.
The bit where I'm honest with you
It's a pain in the backside.
For you, and for me. I don't enjoy asking you to prove your inheritance is really your inheritance any more than you enjoy digging out three months of bank statements. But it's the law, I have to comply, and there's no version of "just this once, skip it" that doesn't put my practising certificate on the line.
Let’s work together.
Please contact me, Lenny, if you would like to make an appointment or to discuss any of the information on this page.