On 1 October 2026 the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA, known in French as LBA and in German as GwG, SR 955.0), its ordinance (AMLO, SR 955.01) and the new Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities (LTPM, in German TJPG, SR 955.3) entered into force. Until now, lawyers and notaries were subject to the AMLA only when they acted as financial intermediaries. The revision creates a new category: advisers (art. 2 para. 3bis and 3ter AMLA).
For a law firm or a notary's office, this means due diligence duties in every covered matter and membership of a self-regulatory organisation (SRO). This article answers the practical questions: am I covered, what are the deadlines, what does it cost, and what does the transparency act change?
The essentials
- In force since 1 October 2026: the revised AMLA and AMLO, and the LTPM.
- Covered: taking part professionally in financial transactions linked to real estate, to non-operational legal entities or to creating legal entities with their seat abroad, and providing a registered office for more than six months.
- Advisers already active on 1 October 2026 must apply to an SRO before 1 December 2026. Until the SRO decides, they may continue only within existing business relationships.
- Without an application in time, or if it is rejected, the covered work must stop (art. 14 para. 1 AMLA, art. 44 FINMASA). Advising without SRO membership is an offence.
- Litigation, and authenticating documents without accessory advice, are not covered.
- The LTPM creates the transparency register. Advisers may consult it for their due diligence, but may rely on it only if their own checks show nothing unusual.
Am I covered? A three-step test
Step one: the activity. Advisers are natural and legal persons who, professionally and on behalf of third parties, take part in financial transactions, including organising funds, in connection with the following (art. 2 para. 3bis AMLA):
- buying or selling real estate;
- creating a non-operational legal entity with its seat in Switzerland, or any legal entity with its seat abroad;
- managing or administering a non-operational legal entity;
- contributions to and distributions from a non-operational legal entity;
- buying or selling a legal entity where this is done through a non-operational legal entity.
Anyone who professionally provides an address or premises as the domicile or seat of a legal entity for more than six months is also an adviser (art. 2 para. 3ter AMLA). Under the ordinance, any advice that causally contributes to the transaction is enough (art. 12d AMLO). For real estate, the activity is covered once the parties have declared that they intend to sign a sale contract. Transactions with the same economic effect as a sale, and granting a usufruct or building right against payment, are covered too (art. 12e AMLO).
Step two: the exclusions. Court, arbitration, criminal and administrative proceedings are excluded, including preparing for or avoiding them (art. 2 para. 4 let. f AMLA). Because of their low risk, the Act also excludes (art. 2 para. 4ter AMLA):
- transactions under family, matrimonial property, inheritance or gift law, or between related persons;
- transfers worth less than CHF 5 million where the price is paid and received exclusively through banks or other financial intermediaries subject to the Act;
- buying residential property in Switzerland for one's own use, or a replacement home;
- transfers of farms or agricultural land to people who will farm them themselves, and land consolidation;
- acting as an officer of operating legal entities, public-benefit foundations or operating associations with their seat in Switzerland;
- setting up a foundation on death;
- authenticating documents without accessory advice.
Step three: professional activity. Advice is professional when it is an independent economic activity aimed at lasting income. It is professional in any event if one of these criteria is met (art. 12f AMLO): more than CHF 50,000 gross revenue per calendar year, more than 20 clients or more than 20 transactions per calendar year, or advice that must be presumed to concern third-party assets above CHF 5 million at any one time, or transactions totalling more than CHF 2 million per calendar year. Whether this is a main or a side activity makes no difference.
Some questions remain open. There is no case law yet, and the OAR FSA/FSN (SRO SAV/SNV) is working with the State Secretariat for International Finance on further guidance. State-employed notaries will be covered at a later date, once the cantons have adapted their law.
What are the deadlines?
Anyone acting as an adviser on 1 October 2026 must apply to an SRO before 1 December 2026. Until the application is decided, they may continue advising only within existing business relationships (AMLO transitional provision, para. 1). A financial intermediary that is already an SRO member reports its advisory activity to its SRO before 1 December 2026 and may keep accepting new mandates from existing clients (AMLO transitional provision, para. 2). Without an application in time, or if it is rejected, the covered work must stop (art. 14 para. 1 AMLA, art. 44 FINMASA).
Anyone who later crosses into professional activity must meet the duties at once and apply within two months (art. 12g AMLO). Anyone who wants to start new covered advisory work joins an SRO first. According to the OAR FSA/FSN, the admission procedure normally takes three to four weeks from a complete application.
Recurring dates follow. Each member reports, by 31 January, the number of AMLA files it handled as at 31 December of the previous year. The half-day basic training course must be completed, for a membership starting after 30 June, by 31 December of the following year (art. 55 OAR FSA/FSN Regulation), so by the end of 2027 for a membership starting in autumn 2026. A half-day refresher then follows every two years (art. 56 Regulation).
Who must join: you, your firm or both?
The duty falls on whoever holds the mandate. If the firm is organised as a company limited by shares, a limited liability company or a partnership entered in the commercial register, the firm joins, and the lawyers who handle covered matters are registered as notified persons. A lawyer or notary practising independently as a natural person joins in their own name. Employees act as auxiliaries of their employer: they do not join themselves, but are notified if they handle covered matters.
The OAR FSA/FSN offers individual membership, collective membership for several independent lawyers, for example sharing a letterhead in a simple partnership, and membership of a company. Someone who advises both as a lawyer and as a notary needs only one membership. The SRO explains this in its FAQ for advisers (version 09/2026).
What does it cost?
For 2026 the OAR FSA/FSN lists the following amounts, excluding VAT. They apply to new members joining only as advisers. A member already affiliated as a financial intermediary pays CHF 250 for the change of status until 30 November 2026, CHF 500 after that.
- admission fee: CHF 300 for an application filed between 1 October and 30 November 2026, CHF 500 from 1 December;
- base contribution: CHF 490;
- supervision fee: CHF 300;
- AMLA audit: a base fee of CHF 2,300 plus CHF 350 per hour;
- basic training course: CHF 480.
The ordinary audit is annual in principle. For advisers, the SRO may space audits up to five years apart depending on the risk class (art. 17 Regulation). Audits are carried out by lawyers and notaries, who see information covered by professional secrecy only exceptionally (art. 18a AMLA). FINMA keeps a public register of affiliated advisers (art. 18b AMLA).
Your duties in every covered matter
The Act sets the duties and your SRO's regulation sets how to meet them (art. 8b to 8d AMLA).
- Verify the client's identity with an admissible method.
- Identify the beneficial owner and, where the regulation requires it, obtain a signed declaration. See beneficial owners under the revised Swiss AMLA.
- Record the subject and purpose of the transaction the client wants.
- Rate the risk against written criteria. A foreign politically exposed person always means higher risk.
- For higher-risk matters, clarify as the circumstances require the background, purpose and origin of the assets.
- Document everything so that a qualified third party can follow it, and keep the file for ten years after the matter ends (art. 7 AMLA).
- Organise the firm: an internal AML specialist once two people are subject to the Act, who also runs controls from 20, and internal directives above ten people (art. 53 and 54 Regulation).
The duty to report to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) is narrow for lawyers and notaries. It applies only if they carry out a financial transaction in the client's name or for the client's account, and the information is not covered by professional secrecy under art. 321 of the Criminal Code (art. 9 para. 2 AMLA).
What the transparency act changes
The LTPM creates the transparency register, kept electronically by the Federal Office of Justice (art. 20 LTPM). Companies limited by shares, limited liability companies, cooperatives and certain foreign legal entities, among others, report their beneficial owners to it (art. 2 LTPM). The register is not public.
Existing companies report within one month of the first change to their commercial register entry, but at the latest within three to six months from 1 October 2026 depending on their legal form and audit type, or within two years if all their beneficial owners are entered in the commercial register as partners or officers (art. 51 LTPM). Foreign legal entities have six months (art. 53 LTPM).
Two rules matter for advisers. They may consult the register online to the extent needed for their AMLA due diligence, and for that purpose only (art. 27 LTPM). But they may rely on the entries only if their own checks, carried out with due care under art. 4, 8b and 8c AMLA, show nothing unusual (art. 23 para. 2 LTPM). The duty to report discrepancies to the register applies to financial intermediaries under art. 2 para. 2 and 3 AMLA, not to advisers, and only from six months after entry into force (art. 30 and 54 LTPM).
First steps
- Review your matters: which current and planned ones fall under art. 2 para. 3bis or 3ter AMLA? Record the reasoning for each.
- Check the art. 12f AMLO thresholds for the calendar year.
- Choose the form of membership, gather the documents and apply before 1 December 2026. The admission fee is lower until 30 November.
- Set written risk criteria. The regulation requires them from every adviser, whatever the number of matters (art. 54 para. 1bis Regulation).
- Appoint an internal AML specialist once two people are subject to the Act.
- Take the OAR FSA/FSN templates and adapt them to your practice.
- Plan the basic training course.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AMLA apply to litigation? No. Court, arbitration, criminal and administrative proceedings are excluded, including work to prepare for or avoid them (art. 2 para. 4 let. f AMLA).
Is a notarial deed on its own covered? No. Authenticating documents without accessory advice is excluded (art. 2 para. 4ter let. h AMLA). It is the advice on the transaction that brings a matter into scope.
Which SRO should the firm join? Any FINMA-recognised SRO that accepts it (art. 14 AMLA). The OAR FSA/FSN, set up by the Swiss Bar Association and the Swiss Notaries Association, accepts only lawyers, notaries and their firms.
What is the risk of advising without SRO membership? Carrying out covered advisory work without SRO membership is an offence under art. 44 FINMASA. Even negligence is punishable by a fine of up to CHF 250,000.
An AMLA file for every matter, in Whisperit
Whisperit turns each duty into a step in the matter: a scoping decision with its reasoning and a guided decision tree, a client link with an access code in French, German, Italian or English, identification with evidence, beneficial-owner and controlling-person declarations as PDFs, risk rating with the rules on PEPs and FATF high-risk countries built in, approval by a second approver, or an explicit logged sole-approver acceptance when the firm has only one, and a decision log that can be added to but never rewritten. The module is in early access. It does not screen sanctions or PEP lists and does not file reports with MROS. See Swiss AMLA compliance for lawyers and notaries: the duties and Whisperit's LBA module.
Sources
This article summarises the law in force on 1 October 2026 for general information, as at September 2026. It is not legal advice. The legal texts and your SRO's rules prevail. The fees come from the OAR FSA/FSN and may change.
- Anti-Money Laundering Act (LBA, SR 955.0), official French text, Fedlex
- Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (OBA, SR 955.01), official French text, Fedlex
- Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities (LTPM), AS 2026 323, official French text, Fedlex
- OAR FSA/FSN (SRO SAV/SNV): membership
- Transparency register, Federal Office of Justice