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IOLTA: Trust Account Guidelines{ Banks | Lawyers : Trust Account Guidelines | Prime Partners : Eligible Financial Institutions (PDF 84K) | Open an Account : Account Request (PDF 24K), Notice of Insufficient Funds (PDF 92K) | Grant Guidelines } Attorneys are required to participate in an IOLTA program if they hold client funds. Funds of a substantial amount or which are to be held for a long period of time should be placed in an interest-bearing account for the clientÃs benefit and therefore not involved in IOLTA. Attorneys are advised to immediately secure funds received for a client in a client’s trust account. i.e. Take care to deposit funds promptly. Lawyers need to take care to make sure that a sufficient balance is maintained in trust accounts to cover all checks written on the account. Client trust accounts may not be taken into consideration as part of an overall banking relationship. Lawyers may not benefit, even indirectly, from clients’ funds unless the lawyer is specifically authorized to retain any such benefits. The term benefit means not only interest which accrues on any such account, but also any other preferential treatment, rebate, or other reward earned because of such financial arrangement. Costs that arise as a consequence of doing business should not be paid from client trust accounts or the interest generated by client trust accounts. Examples of charges are check orders, wire transfers, insufficient funds charges and stop payments. Attorneys are advised to be familiar with Rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct and its comments.
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