The traditional compliance
model is broken.
Here's what businesses have been told to do — and why it's been failing them for 20 years.
What businesses have always been told to do.
For 20 years, businesses needing compliance help had three options. None of them worked particularly well.
Hire a law firm
$400–$600/hour. Lawyers who understand the legal framework but have never run a compliance program, never been the MLRO, never sat across the table from AUSTRAC when something went wrong. Beautiful documents. Handsome invoices. Then they disappear.
Hire a big consulting firm
A junior consultant reads the AUSTRAC guidance and builds something generic with your logo on it. It looks professional. It ticks boxes. Nobody in your business actually understands it, uses it, or knows what to do when a suspicious transaction lands on their desk.
Rely on software alone
Templates, checklists, a help centre, maybe a webinar. But nobody to call when a real regulatory question arises. Nobody who has been through an AUSTRAC audit and knows what they really look for.
Ritesh Singh
Founder, Cleared Advisory"The dirty secret of the compliance industry is that most compliance programs are built by people who have never actually been accountable to a regulator. They know the rules. They don't know what it feels like when the rules are tested. And when they are tested — that's exactly when you find out if your program actually works."
What we do differently. And why it matters.
The Traditional Model
- Advisors who know the rules but have never been the MLRO. Never been accountable. Never signed an SMR.
- Generic templates with your logo. Same document, same structure, every client.
- Complexity designed to create dependency. The more confusing it is, the more billable hours they get.
- Deliver the document. Invoice. Move on. No follow-up, no operational support, no help when things go wrong.
- Advisory only. You need three firms. Three invoices. Three sets of onboarding.
- $400–$600/hour. Compliance becomes the privilege of businesses that can afford it.
The Cleared Advisory Model
- We've been the MLRO. Accountable to AUSTRAC. Signed the SMRs. Managed de-banking threats. We know what it feels like when compliance is really tested.
- Programs built specifically for your business, your risk profile, your team, your sector. Not a template with your name changed.
- Transaction monitoring
- SMR drafting & submission
- Annual independent audit
Three things we promise. Every client. Every time.
Most consultants deal entirely in theory, leaving you to figure out the execution. We bring boots-on-the-ground reality to your compliance, building operational frameworks that actually protect your business.
Plain English. Always.
Every document, every conversation, every recommendation. If you can't explain it to your team, it won't work in your business. We have never once used jargon as a substitute for clarity.
Yours to own and operate.
We build programs your team can actually run. No dependency on us to answer every question. Compliance that lives in your business, understood by the people who need to follow it.
We stay after delivery.
The document is the beginning, not the end. Available when AUSTRAC asks questions, when staff change, when risks evolve. We don't invoice and disappear.
What makes a compliance program that actually survives an AUSTRAC audit.
Most AML/CTF programs fail in practice — not because they don't exist, but because they were built for the shelf, not the business. Here's what we build instead.
Built for your actual risk profile
Not a generic template. Based on a real business risk assessment of your clients, services, geographies and delivery channels.
Written in language your staff understand
Procedures your front desk, your admin team, your principal can follow without a law degree or a compliance background.
Tested against what AUSTRAC actually reviews
Structured around the 40 AML/CTF obligations from the Act — not what looks good on paper.
Owned and operated by your team
Trained into your team. Referenced in real situations. Not a document that gets filed and forgotten.
Maintained as your business changes
Updated when staff change, services change, regulations change. A living program — not a one-time project.
SIGNS YOUR CURRENT PROGRAM ISN'T WORKING
