Fica Friendly
FICA COMPLIANCE SPECIALISTS
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FICA FRIENDLY · BUSINESS-WIDE RISK ASSESSMENT

Firm Risk Profile

Client Information Gathering Form

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Why You’re Filling This Out

This form collects the information Fica Friendly needs to understand how your firm actually operates, identify the ML, TF and PF risks relevant to the business, and develop or update your firm-specific Business-Wide Risk Assessment (BWRA).

The completed BWRA will also inform the risk-based policies, procedures and controls reflected in your firm’s Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP).

ASSESSMENT & RMCP REFERENCE FRAMEWORK
Section 42 · FIC Act Guidance Note 7B PCC 53 Applicable FIC PCCs & Guidance
!

Before You Start — It Helps to Have:

  • Approximate active-client and matter numbers for the assessment period
  • A sense of your main legal services and approximate service mix
  • Approximate client-type, industry and geographic breakdowns
  • Typical and higher-value transaction or matter ranges
◷ 15–25 minutes for the Firm Profile ✓ Progress auto-saved ◎ Estimates are acceptable
We’ll associate this email with the assessment and use it for assessment-related communication.
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 1

Firm & Assessment Profile

Tell us about the period being assessed and the size, structure and operating footprint of your practice. These details give context to the exposure identified in the rest of the questionnaire.

Firm & Assessment
Assessment basis
Preferably use the previous 12 months, or the most representative period available.
If you do not know it right now, you can leave this blank.
Office footprint
Count the main office and formal branches. Do not count ad hoc consultation venues.
Include formal branches, satellite offices and locations used regularly for client consultations.
Include formal networks, affiliated practices, correspondent firms or ongoing referral relationships with law firms or other professional service providers outside South Africa.
Firm size & activity during the assessment period
Enter 0 where a category does not apply.
Practising legal practitioners
0
Total people in the firm
0
RMCP administration details
These details are captured for the RMCP record. They are not used by themselves to determine the firm’s inherent ML, TF or PF risk.
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 2

Legal Services & Activities

Tell us which legal services the firm provides and what activities it actually performs in client matters. This helps us measure exposure based on the firm’s real work rather than broad practice-area labels alone.

Service Profile
Select all that apply. Specific service options will open underneath each selected category.
Estimates are fine. For this allocation, count each matter once under the main legal-service category that best describes the primary service provided. The total should add up to approximately 100%. Sub-services may overlap within a matter and are therefore not separately totalled.
Total 0%
Specific activities carried out during the assessment period
Practice-area labels can hide the actual activity taking place. For each activity below, tell us how often it occurred. Where a percentage field appears, estimate the percentage of the firm’s total matters in which the activity occurred. These are factual exposure questions — not a judgement that the activity is suspicious or high risk.
Activity
Frequency
% of matters
“Unknown” should be used where the information cannot reasonably be determined from available firm records. Unknown information will be treated as an information gap, not as a Low-risk answer.
International trade / PF-relevant legal work
These questions help identify whether the firm’s services create any relevant proliferation-financing exposure. The firm is not being asked to decide whether particular goods or technology are controlled or “dual use”.
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 3

Clients, Industries & Ownership

Tell us who the firm acts for, how clients come to the firm, the industries business clients operate in, and the ownership or structural characteristics the firm encounters.

Client Profile
Client types & mix
Select all that apply. For the percentage allocation below, count each client once under the category that best describes that client. Count sole proprietors under “Sole proprietors” rather than also under “Individuals / natural persons”, and count foreign legal entities under “Foreign legal entities / organisations” rather than also under a South African legal-form category.
Reasonable estimates are sufficient. Count each client once in the best-fitting category so the allocation adds to approximately 100%.
Total 0%
Client relationship characteristics
Use the best available estimate and place each client relationship into one category only. The three figures should add to approximately 100%.
Existing / repeat clients
%
New clients expected to become ongoing / repeat
New clients who are not simply one-off / transactional instructions.
%
One-off / transactional clients
Clients expected to instruct the firm for that matter only.
%
Total 0%
Select all meaningful sources. For the percentage allocation, assign each new client or matter to the primary source that brought the instruction to the firm.
Other client characteristics relevant to ML, TF & PF
Answer based on the firm’s current knowledge. Screening controls are assessed later.
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 4

Geographic & Cross-Border Exposure

Tell us where clients, beneficial owners, counterparties, assets, transactions and funds are connected. You do not need to decide whether a country is higher or lower risk — the risk engine will assess the jurisdictions from your answers.

Geography
Client geography
Select all provinces represented in the client base during the assessment period. For the percentage allocation below, use each client’s primary South African location so the same client is not counted twice.
Estimates are sufficient. Allocate each South African client once to its primary province. These figures are combined with the foreign-client percentage below, and South African provinces plus foreign clients must total 100%.
Enter 0% if the firm did not act for foreign-based clients during the assessment period.
%
Total client geography 0%
Beneficial-owner & controlling-person geography
Transaction, asset & counterparty geography
Include a foreign client, beneficial owner, counterparty, bank account, asset, property, entity, trust, source or destination of funds, international trade or another foreign connection.
%
Funds geography
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 5

Delivery Channels

Tell us how clients are typically onboarded and how they instruct or engage with the firm. We are assessing the delivery channel itself — not yet how remote clients are verified.

Delivery Channels
How clients interact with the firm
Think about how the firm actually communicates with clients when taking them on and receiving instructions. Split those interactions between face-to-face and remote. The two percentages must add up to 100%. A client may use both at different times — allocate the interaction itself, rather than placing the whole client relationship into a “combination” category.
Face-to-face
The client is met and the relevant interaction or instruction takes place in person.
%
Remote
The interaction or instruction takes place without an in-person meeting, for example by email, phone, video call, WhatsApp, portal or electronic platform.
%
Total 0%
Enter 0% if every client is physically met by someone at the firm.
%
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Section 6

Transactions & Money

Tell us about client money, transaction values, payment patterns, funding sources and the assets involved in the firm’s matters. These questions measure exposure and materiality — they do not ask you to decide whether a transaction is suspicious or high risk.

Transactions & Money
Client money & trust-account exposure
Transaction & matter values
Payment methods
Select all that apply. Include methods used for transaction funds, trust money or other matter-related payments.
Transaction patterns
Tell us how often the firm encounters each pattern. Percentages are requested only where they materially improve the exposure assessment.
Pattern
Frequency
% of matters
Sources of funds
This asks what funding patterns the firm actually encounters — not whether source-of-funds evidence is obtained.
Destinations of funds / proceeds
Assets & subject matter
1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Step 7 of 8

How Your Firm Handles Risk

You have told us what your firm does and where its exposure comes from. Now tell us what you actually collect, check or do in practice when taking on and managing clients and matters.

7 of 8
How to think about risk for these questions
Lower risk Routine for your firm and nothing stands out as unusual.
Medium risk Something about the client, matter or transaction means you ask for more information or do extra checks.
Higher risk There are stronger warning signs or unusual features, so you collect more information, do enhanced checks or get extra approval.
Tell us what your firm actually does now. Short phrases or lists are fine. If something does not apply, write N/A.
How to complete this section
1

Open one item at a time. Each item below is based on information you already gave us.

2

Answer the questions for that item. Complete lower, medium and higher risk, then open the follow-up stages below it.

3

Check the status. It changes from Not completed → In progress → Completed as you work.

A

Legal Services

We only show the specific legal services you selected earlier.

B

Client Types

Tell us what changes when the client or matter needs more scrutiny.

Use your own words. For example: unusual ownership, a foreign connection, a PEP/PIP, unclear source of funds, third-party payments, an unusual transaction structure, cash, or information that does not make sense.
C

Geography & Cross-Border Exposure

These questions use the geographic and foreign connections you already recorded.

D

How Clients Deal With You

We only show the delivery methods your firm actually uses.

E

Transactions & Money

Tell us what the firm checks as the matter progresses and before money moves.

1 · Firm
2 · Services
3 · Clients
4 · Geography
5 · Delivery Channels
6 · Transactions & Money
7 · How Your Firm Handles Risk
8 · Review & Submit
Step 8 of 8

Review & Submit

Review the final profile, confirm it reflects how the firm operates, then submit the questionnaire.

8 of 8
Profile summary
This is a read-only summary of key information captured across the questionnaire. It is not yet the risk rating.
Concentration
Concentration can increase exposure where a large share of the firm’s work depends on a small number of clients, referral sources, practice areas or foreign jurisdictions.
Material changes
If this is the firm’s first BWRA / RMCP, select the baseline option.
Data quality & information gaps
COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE COPY
Download a PDF of all questions and your answers

Please keep a copy for your records and email the completed PDF to ficafriendly@gmail.com.

STEP 7 OF 8 · HOW YOUR FIRM HANDLES RISK · CLIENT TAKE-ON
How the firm actually accepts and onboards clients
Step 7 of 8
3.1 Client Acceptance / Onboarding Gate
3.2 Understanding the Business Relationship
Section 3.1

Client Acceptance / Onboarding Gate

These questions establish the firm’s actual intake sequence — how a prospective client moves from first contact to an accepted mandate and when the FICA/client-take-on process begins.

Current Controls
CLIENT JOURNEY · VOICE NOTE

Talk us through how a client moves through your firm

This can be much more useful than a formal answer. Speak naturally — as if you were explaining the client journey to someone joining your firm tomorrow.

Optional · Recommended
01Finding youHow do clients usually hear about or contact the firm?
02First contactWhat happens after the enquiry and before you decide to take the matter?
03Accepting the clientWhen do you decide to accept the instruction, open the file or issue the mandate?
04FICA onboardingWhen does FICA start, who handles it, and what happens while information is outstanding?
05MoneyWhen do you ask for fees, deposits or trust money, and what must happen before money can move?
06During the matterHow do instructions, changes, payments and client communication work until the matter closes?
Just riff. You do not need to answer each prompt separately. A 3–8 minute explanation is usually enough. Maximum recording time: 10 minutes.
Ready to record
00:00 / 10:00
Microphone access is only requested when you press Start. Please describe the firm's general client journey and do not mention individual client names or confidential matter details. Maximum recording time: 10 minutes.
FICA / client-take-on sequence
Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
STEP 7 OF 8 · HOW YOUR FIRM HANDLES RISK · UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT & MATTER
How the firm understands the intended relationship
Step 7 of 8
3.1 Client Acceptance / Onboarding Gate
3.2 Understanding the Business Relationship
Section 3.2

Understanding the Business Relationship

Capture how the firm establishes what the client is asking it to do, why the instruction exists, whether the relationship is once-off or ongoing, and what should normally be expected on the matter.

Current Controls
Select all that apply.
Select all that apply.
✓
QUESTIONNAIRE SUBMITTED

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