Source of wealth is the explanation of how a customer accumulated their total net worth over their lifetime: a career, a business they built and sold, investments, an inheritance. Firms establish it for higher-risk customers, such as politically exposed persons and private banking clients, to judge whether their overall wealth is plausibly legitimate. It is a narrative, tested against evidence.
Why does source of wealth matter once agents act?
A source of wealth review is a story check. The customer says they built a business over twenty years and sold it; the reviewer asks whether the dates, the sale value, the tax position and the current assets fit that story. Gaps are normal. Judging which gaps matter is the job.
Agents are good at the assembly: building a timeline from documents, public records and press, noting where each figure comes from and where the story has holes. They are not the ones to decide whether a gap is innocent. That stays with an analyst and, for high-risk customers, a senior approver, in line with compliance agents working in the second line.
What does a source of wealth review look at?
The evidence depends on how the wealth was made:
| Wealth came from | Typical evidence |
|---|---|
| Employment | Employment history, payslips, tax returns, bonus letters |
| Business ownership | Company accounts, registry filings, sale agreements |
| Investments | Portfolio statements, records of the original capital |
| Inheritance | Probate documents, will, estate accounts |
| Property | Title records, purchase and sale documents |
Each item should be matched to the timeline. Our guide on reviewing source of wealth evidence with an AI agent covers who does each step.
An example from a private bank
Take a private bank onboarding a client who declares net worth of around 20 million, from founding and selling a software company and later property investment. The agent builds the timeline: registry records show the company founded and the client as majority shareholder; trade press reports the sale at a stated price; the client's documents show proceeds and later property purchases.
The agent notes that the declared property portfolio is larger than the sale proceeds alone would fund, and that no mortgage records were supplied. It drafts the gap as a question, not a finding. The analyst asks; the client provides mortgage offers; the timeline closes. Private banks in specific markets face the same questions with local rules on top, as in our briefs on compliance in wealth management in Germany.
How is source of wealth different from source of funds?
Source of funds follows one pot of money to its origin, and can usually be settled by documents that show the money arising and moving. It has a clear end point.
Source of wealth asks whether a whole life's accumulation makes sense. There is rarely one document that settles it, so the reviewer weighs plausibility: does a career in that role, in that country, over that time, explain these assets? That is why source of wealth reviews need more senior judgement, and why an agent's output here is always a draft narrative with gaps marked.
Which terms sit next to source of wealth?
- Politically exposed person: a customer type for whom source of wealth is usually required.
- Net worth: the figure source of wealth explains.
- Corroboration: independent evidence that confirms the customer's account, the strongest kind being records from the issuer.
Questions people ask
How precise does a source of wealth explanation need to be?
Precise enough that a reasonable reviewer finds it plausible and corroborated where it matters. It does not require accounting for every sum, but large unexplained portions need an answer.
Can public information alone establish source of wealth?
Sometimes, for well-documented public figures. Usually it supports, rather than replaces, evidence from the customer, and an agent should mark public sources as external.