What is Source of Wealth?
The short answer
Source of wealth concerns how a person accumulated their overall wealth, which is distinct from the origin of a specific payment.
Source of Wealth: why it matters
An onboarding or review decision can contain several different questions. Keeping this concept distinct helps the team assign the right evidence and decision owner, rather than rely on a single completed status.
How to assess it in practice
Separate the wider wealth explanation from transaction-specific funding evidence and document remaining uncertainty. Start by defining the question the team needs to answer. Identify the relevant record or evidence, check its scope and date, and retain the reasoning behind the result. If evidence conflicts, keep that conflict visible for review.
Worked example
Illustrative workflow: a team reviewing a business adds a separate check for source of wealth. The reviewer’s task is to separate the wider wealth explanation from transaction-specific funding evidence and document remaining uncertainty. The outcome is recorded together with the supporting evidence; an unresolved question stays open rather than being converted into a positive result.
Evidence of a business sale supports a wealth explanation, but a new payment funded through another route still requires its own source-of-funds assessment where appropriate.
Distinctions that matter
Source of Wealth belongs to the ongoing review & funding context topic family. Read Ongoing Due Diligence alongside it to understand the adjacent question. Each page has its own intended scope; shared context does not make the concepts equivalent.
Evidence and review output
Review these
- Previously approved baseline
- New facts and source dates
- Review outcome and next trigger
The review should produce
An updated relationship assessment with changes, unanswered questions and the next action made explicit.
Across this family
Compare the current understanding of a relationship with its approved baseline. A scheduled review and an event-driven review can answer different questions, so specify what triggers each and how outcomes update the file. A delivered notification is not itself a completed reassessment.
A note from practice
Source of wealth explains how overall wealth accumulated, often across several activities and periods. Reconcile the explanation with the person's circumstances without assuming it proves the origin of every subsequent payment.
Limits and common mistakes
The practical boundary is important: Separate the wider wealth explanation from transaction-specific funding evidence and document remaining uncertainty. Do not substitute a related label for this check or assume that missing information is a negative finding. Source-specific and jurisdiction-specific rules require their own review.
Frequently asked questions
Which evidence should I review?
How is Source of Wealth different from Ongoing Due Diligence?
What should the result of the review contain?
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Related topics
- Ongoing review & funding contextOngoing Due DiligenceOngoing due diligence maintains an understanding of an existing relationship as customer information and activity change.
- Ongoing review & funding contextPeriodic ReviewPeriodic review reassesses a relationship on a defined schedule using relevant current information.
- Ongoing review & funding contextTrigger-Based ReviewTrigger-based review starts a reassessment when a defined event or change warrants attention.
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