Client ID and AML checks for UK law firms

The client ID check that costs £2 and survives an SRA visit.

Send your client one link. Back comes one dated page for the file: identity verified, sanctions and PEP screened, what was checked and when, and anything a fee earner needs to look at.

Built by someone who thinks a solicitor's ID check should cost what an ID check costs.

£99 + VAT a month · 50 checks included · £1.50 + VAT per additional check · Unlimited staff seats · First month free, no card

£99/mo + VAT50 checks included
£1.50each additional check
No contractcancel any time
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 and charge what the market will bear. The sanctions lists are published by HM Treasury, the FCDO, OFAC and the UN; the PEP roster comes from OpenSanctions, covering politically exposed persons plus their relatives and close associates. We ingest the sanctions lists daily and the PEP index weekly into our own screening engine, and the biometric match runs on our own servers. It's a solved technical problem that costs little to run, so you pay what the check costs and keep the rest.

4
Sanctions list sources: OFSI, FCDO, OFAC, UN, checked every day, plus the PEP index, checked weekly, 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, run 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
Live in production
How a check works

What the client does. What your firm receives.

Three steps. A few minutes for the client. One page for you.

01

Receive a secure link

Add the client's name and email. They get one secure link that works on any phone. No app to install.

02

Follow the identity-check instructions

The client photographs their ID and takes a short selfie, following the on-screen steps: a few minutes on any phone.

03

Results return for your review

The identity result and sanctions/PEP screening come back to your firm, dated and ready to review and keep with the matter.

Sample check: fictional data
Alex Morgan
Clear: a straightforward result
Checked 3 September, 09:14 (illustrative date) · passport, chip-verified
Sanctions screeningClear: no match across the OFSI, FCDO, OFAC and UN lists checked that day
PEP screeningClear: no match against the PEP roster checked that day
IdentityChip-verified passport, biometric match to a live selfie
What remains for your firmYour matter risk assessment, source-of-funds work and decision to proceed

A possible screening match needs a person to review it. It does not by itself establish that this is the same person. Your firm decides what further checks are needed before proceeding.

A PDF that says 'verified' isn't an answer to an inspector's question. This page is.

See the full sample record →
The offer

One plan. A transparent price.

£99 + VAT a month · 50 checks included · £1.50 + VAT per additional check · Unlimited staff seats · First month free, no card

Live

FirmGuard Verify

£99 /month + VAT
or £990/year + VAT, two months free
  • 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
Prices exclude VAT. The free month is the full product, not a demo tier.

Why this exists

Every day I see good businesses buried under rules that keep multiplying, when all they want to do is serve their customers. Most of those rules are fair. The cost of meeting them isn't. Somewhere between the regulator and a small firm sits an industry charging what the market will bear for what a solved problem actually costs to run.

So I built tools that do one job each, at the price the job costs, with no contract. You keep the rest. Let's go and do good work.

Paul Morton, founder

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 runs on iPhone; other phones use 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 →

What this covers, and what stays with your firm.

Identity and screening evidence for your CDD process. Your firm retains its risk assessments, further due diligence and decision to proceed.

Use it when the next suitable matter opens. Keep re-screening results alongside the original check.

Identity verification

The strongest document evidence there is, and nothing to install.

A passport has a chip signed by the government that issued it. Reading that chip is the strongest way to verify a document, because it can't be altered the way a photo of the page can.

On an iPhone

Chip read on the spot

The client taps the link and holds their passport to the phone. The chip is read there and then. Nothing to download.

On any other phone

The standard flow

The same link runs a photo of the document and a live selfie. Every client can be verified, whatever they carry.

What it means for the file

The method is on the record

The record says which method was used, so an inspector can see the evidence came from the chip, not from an image.

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. It is 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. That is 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 with Clio or a signed webhook, no code required.

Live

Clio

Use Clio? Start a check from the contact and link it to the Matter. When the check completes, a note and a link to the full evidence record are added there. A Contact-only check writes to the Contact instead.

Live

Webhooks

Signed, real-time cdd.check_completed events push completed checks into your own systems. Read the developer docs →

Coming soon

Zapier

A listed Zapier app is on the way, so you'll be able to send completed checks to the tools your team already uses, without code.

Coming soon

LEAP

Case-management connector: a note and a link to the completed check will land on the matter.

Coming soon

Actionstep

Case-management connector: a note and a link to the completed check will land on the matter.

Start with one check.

Start free, 50 checks

Send one to yourself to see the customer experience, then use it on your next suitable matter. Set-up takes a few minutes. If your firm is on the SRA register, its details are usually already in our register data.

First month free · no card to start · see a sample check first · unsubscribe from everything in one click