Introduction 

Source of funds (SoF) discovery has to be the most challenging AML process to conduct for lawyers and clients alike. Lawyers never being clear if the information disclosed is “enough” to evidence ALL the sources of funds for a transaction. Multiple contributors to funds beyond the immediate client, who don’t want to engage in providing such detailed personally sensitive information. Running a robust SoF risk practice can feel like finding a transparent needle in a digital haystack.

When it comes to SoF every lawyer knows the drill: request the information from your client, the client fills out an often complicated form (digital or otherwise) that gives some but not all information, request more information from the client, get different information in a different format from the client, remember to check whether identity verification has been completed, realise that necessary information was missing …and ask the client again. This is the critical, but cumbersome process we’re all way too familiar with because that’s just the reality. Isn’t it? Not for long.

Legl has been busy building a smarter way to perform SoF checks — a smart, AI-powered guided journey that will remove the need to bombard clients with a long list of sources. Using Legl’s Smart Source of Funds tool, clients will have a conversation with our system, explaining the origin of their funds and recommending sources, removing one of the fundamental frustrations about the current SoF process.

Think smarter, dynamic, and responsive data collection that gathers what you need based on your client’s answers. This is business come to law — AI-enabled, client-driven interfaces that remove the legwork associated with legacy, manual or digital legacy tech processes.

If you’d like to know more about how we’re doing this — read on!

Getting started with AI 

Generative AI is everywhere. That might be the understatement of the century, but, as so often happens with new technology, once you scratch the surface of all the chatter, you quickly realise there’s not much substance to the conversations.

That’s part of the reason we take a more considered approach to AI. We don’t start developing new solutions and features in a vacuum inhabited solely by technology — we don’t look at AI and work backwards, we look at legal processes and work forwards. We meticulously identify and dissect the pain points within legal practice and then begin the journey of understanding what technology is capable of fixing — the how, when, what, and where. This initial step is crucial, as it ensures that our solutions are not just technologically advanced but also genuinely responsive to the needs of our clients.

Treating pain with innovation 

Once we’ve understood the pain point — the problem, we then begin a collaborative and methodical process of developing a tech-forward solution. This involves collaboration with first-thinkers — lawyers, compliance managers, and legal professionals who want to be involved in the development of next-generation tools, and better their understanding and competence with AI-powered technologies.

We began this process with Legl Assist, our first generative AI product that set the stage for our future endeavours. Launched with great interest in November 2023, Legl Assist's success was partly due to our beta testing group, which played a pivotal role in refining the product through constant feedback and iteration.

Building on this experience, we've established an AI customer innovation group for our upcoming AI tools. This group, comprising current clients and prospects, is vital in our development process. It allows us to test, iterate, and perfect our AI solutions, ensuring they meet the real-world needs of our users.

By testing smart AI hypotheses through this collaborative learning and iterative approach, Legl is not just developing tools; we're crafting a future where AI empowers legal professionals to focus on what matters most, underpinned by technology that's both intelligent and intuitive.

Introducing Legl Smart Source of Funds

So, what does this mean for SoF? What’s coming down the runway from our collaborative hub of AI innovators? Here’s a rundown of a few of the reasons we’re excited by a future powered by AI: 

Guided source selection sits at the core of our innovation across our platform of solutions, be it guiding consumers or analysts. It's the intelligent layer transforming the tedious SoF identification into an effortless dialogue. This intuitive dynamic conversation reduces the guesswork for your clients, removes the need for complex logic trees and ensures you receive precise, relevant information. 

Insights are the next frontier. We believe in making data work harder so you can work smarter. SoF isn’t just about data collection; it’s about intelligent curation. Once your client finishes their discussion with our platform, a rich dashboard of insights awaits you. More than a summary, it's a comprehensive analysis detailing the sources of funds, enriched with the critical 'why' and 'how' — positioning you to make well-informed decisions effortlessly. In the world of legal process if data has reigned as king, context is now queen.

What’s coming up? 

We're exhilarated about the future of our SoF tool, as we embark on expanding its use cases to encompass a wide range of commercial SoF and Source of Wealth, tailoring our technology to meet our clients' specific needs by design in a more intelligent, bespoke manner. 

Our commitment is not to refine but rethink the traditional technology approach to solving pain associated with the current SoF/SoW process, integrating AI-driven insights into our reports to provide a deeper, more nuanced analysis of financial data and potential fraud risks.

Our vision extends to transforming the client experience, making onboarding faster and more autonomous, allowing lawyers to focus on their core work while clients engage with a sophisticated, intuitive platform. This progression towards AI adoption signifies our dedication to pushing boundaries and redefining what's possible in legal tech, ensuring our clients and their customers benefit from cutting-edge, future-focused solutions.

No more endless chasing. No more needless frustration. No more uncertainty about when enough is enough. Just straightforward, accurate, and relevant information readily available and auditable at your fingertips.

A preview of the AI-guided SoF journey

Take a look at an example AI-guided journey, below:

Stay ahead of the innovation curve with Legl

At Legl, we don’t do things by halves. Whether it is the tech or compliance risk you need solutions for, join our PIG ( Product Innovation Group) for early adopter innovator access to product, compliance and risk solutions. Register to secure your free spot today.

If you’d like to get an exclusive preview of our Smart SoF solution and understand more about how the tech behind the interface works, reach out to us here, and we’ll share more details with you.

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