Client due diligence · UK law firms

When the SRA asks for the client file — it exists.

Send your client one secure link. FirmGuard verifies who they are, screens them against that day's sanctions and PEP lists, and files the dated, inspection-ready record — for £99 a month + VAT flat, not £5–£40 a check. Every fee earner, one price.

Start free — 50 checks on us See pricing First month free · no card — test it on yourself in about five minutes
£99/mo + VATFlat — 50 checks included
£0Per-check fees
UnlimitedFee-earner seats
5 yearsEvidence retention, locked
Why it isn't metered

The screening engine is ours.

Per-check pricing exists because most CDD tools resell licensed data. We built the engine instead: the sanctions and PEP lists are published by HM Treasury (OFSI), the FCDO, OFAC and the UN — we ingest them daily into our own screening infrastructure, and the biometric face-match runs on our own servers. It's already live in production, screening property-sector clients under the money-laundering regulations. So we can charge you a flat rate.

4
Sanctions & PEP list sources — OFSI, FCDO, OFAC, UN — refreshed every day, with freshness checks that stop a stale list producing a "clear"
Biometric
Server-side face match between the client's ID document and a live selfie — on our infrastructure, not a third party's
5-year
Evidence storage with a compliance retention lock — the file can't be quietly edited or deleted
Live
In production — the same engine screens property-sector clients under the money-laundering regulations today
How a check works

One link. A few minutes. A file you can show an inspector.

01

Send the link

Add the client's name and email — they get a secure verification link that works on any phone. No app to install.

02

They verify

The client photographs their ID and takes a short selfie — a few minutes on any phone.

03

We screen

Biometric match between document and selfie, plus sanctions & PEP screening against that day's lists. Anything doubtful is flagged for your review — never silently cleared.

04

You file

A dated audit pack per client: the document, the match result, the screening outcome and the list versions used. Download it or leave it on file.

Matters move fast, so the client flow is built to finish in one sitting — and if a client stalls, you can see exactly where they stopped.

See how the CDD engine works, end to end →

Identity verification

Chip-read passport verification — the standard the SRA and banks trust. No app to install.

Reading the cryptographic chip embedded in a passport or biometric ID card is the strongest form of document verification available — the chip data is signed by the issuing authority and can't be forged the way a photo of a document page can.

iPhone

Chip read via the everyGuard App Clip

On an iPhone, the client's verification link launches the everyGuard App Clip straight in Safari and reads the NFC chip in their passport or biometric ID — no app to install, no App Store detour.

Every other phone

Falls back to the standard flow

On Android or any browser without App Clip support, the same link runs our standard document-photo-plus-live-selfie verification instead — so every client can be verified, on whichever phone they carry.

Why it matters

Evidence an inspector expects

Chip data can't be edited the way an image can, which is why it's the standard banks and the SRA recognise as best practice for verifying the highest-risk clients.

What's included

Everything in the flat price.

Identity

Biometric ID verification

Document capture with a server-side face match against a live selfie. Stronger evidence than a database ping — you hold the document and the match, not just a reference number.

Screening

Sanctions & PEP screening

Every client screened against the OFSI consolidated list, FCDO, OFAC and UN lists as they stood that day — with the list versions recorded in the evidence, and doubtful matches escalated for review.

Ongoing

Scheduled monitoring

Set re-screening per client — monthly, quarterly or annually. Every run is logged whether or not anything changed, so your Regulation 28(11) ongoing-monitoring evidence writes itself. Status changes alert you the same morning.

Evidence

Client file & audit packs

A running file per client, and a dated audit pack you can hand to an inspector: what was checked, against which lists, with what result — stored under a 5-year retention lock.

Entities

Company & ownership checks

For corporate clients: the ownership chain is walked from Companies House and every beneficial owner screened individually — the April 2025 LSAG update's hardest new ask, handled. The register alone isn't enough (reg 28(9) says so). See the LSAG mapping →

The firm

Unlimited seats

Every fee earner and support-staff member on one account, one price. No per-user charges — who runs the check should never be a licensing decision.

Integrations

Your compliance evidence, in the systems you already use.

FirmGuard doesn't have to be another island your team logs into separately. Push completed checks straight into your own systems, or connect it to thousands of apps with no code.

Live

Webhooks

Signed, real-time cdd.check_completed events pushed to your own systems the moment a check finishes. Read the developer docs →

Live

Zapier

Connect FirmGuard to 6,000+ apps with no code — send a completed check to a spreadsheet, a Slack channel, or your practice-management system's inbox.

Live

Clio

Start a check from your Clio contacts, attach it to the matter, and the completed verdict is filed back into the matter as a note — automatically. Plus a "Run CDD check" link right inside Clio.

Coming soon

LEAP

Case-management connector — the completed check lands on the matter automatically.

Coming soon

Actionstep

Case-management connector — the completed check lands on the matter automatically.

What firms pay today is a meter running on every matter.

The going rate

Across the profession, electronic CDD is typically advertised at £5–£40 per check — plus platform fees, plus per-user seats, often plus a separate training subscription. A small conveyancing team doing 30–50 matters a month spends £200–£600 on checks alone.

The flat alternative

FirmGuard Verify is £99 a month + VAT with 50 checks included — under £2 a check with biometrics included, at typical volumes. Past 50, checks are £1.50 + VAT each; we never block a check mid-matter, the counter simply keeps honest score.

See it before you pay

Your first month is free — all 50 checks, no card. There's a live counter in the corner of the screen, so you always know exactly where you stand. If it isn't obviously better value than your per-check bill, close the account in one click.

Pricing

One live plan. One on the way.

Live

FirmGuard Verify

£99 /month + VAT
or £990/year + VAT — two months free · first month free, no card
  • 50 CDD checks a month included — £1.50 + VAT each after, never blocked
  • Biometric ID verification + sanctions & PEP screening
  • Scheduled ongoing monitoring with logged runs
  • Client files & dated audit packs, 5-year retention lock
  • Company & UBO checks for entity clients
  • Unlimited fee-earner seats
Start free — 50 checks on us
Prices exclude VAT. The free month is the full product, not a demo tier.
Coming soon

FirmGuard Shield

£249 /month + VAT
or £2,490/year + VAT — for firms that want the whole posture covered
  • Everything in Verify, with 150 checks a month
  • SRA Transparency Rules website scan, re-verified monthly
  • Firm-wide & matter risk-assessment evidence file
  • AML training for fee earners, with certificates
  • A public trust mark your clients can check
Join the waiting list
Shield launches after Verify. Verify subscribers get first access and keep their existing price.

The plain-English notes your COLP will ask for.

FirmGuard supports your judgement; it never replaces it. Client due diligence decisions — including enhanced due diligence and anything a screening result flags for review — remain the responsibility of your firm's COLP/MLRO. We give you the evidence and the audit trail; the call is yours.

Our verification is document + biometric + screening. We verify the client's identity document, biometrically match it to a live selfie, and screen against the sanctions and PEP lists. We do not currently run credit-bureau electronic-footprint checks or a source-of-funds workflow — if you need those today, we'll say so rather than sell around it. Source-of-funds support is on the roadmap. Chip-read passport verification is live on iPhone via the everyGuard App Clip; every other phone uses the standard document-plus-selfie flow above.

We are independent. FirmGuard is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the SRA or the Law Society. The screening lists we use are the official published UK, US and UN lists, refreshed daily, and every check records which list versions it ran against.

The LSAG mapping, section by section. The guidance's own Technology principles ask you to document any electronic ID&V tool you use — its role and its data sources. We wrote that document for you: how a FirmGuard check maps to the April 2025 LSAG guidance, section by section, including what stays your firm's judgement. Read the LSAG mapping →

Run your next 50 checks on us.

Set-up takes a few minutes — your firm's details are usually already in our register data. Send your first verification link today and see the audit pack it produces.

Start free — 50 checks on us
First month free · no card to start · unsubscribe from everything in one click