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BluPay glossary

IOLTA

Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts: programs that direct interest from qualifying pooled lawyer trust accounts to designated legal-services or access-to-justice purposes.

Payments & operationsintermediateSources checked

Also known as Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts

What it means

A particular trust-account arrangement

IOLTA programs generally concern client funds too small in amount or held too briefly to earn net interest for the individual client. Program design, eligible institutions and participation rules are jurisdiction-specific.

Do not equate every client balance with IOLTA

A practice must determine which money belongs in an IOLTA account and which belongs in another permitted trust arrangement. A crypto wallet or a payment provider’s pooled balance is not automatically an eligible IOLTA account. The ability to receive a token does not establish compliance with professional or banking rules.

Related concepts

Client trust accounting, Payment reconciliation.

In practice

A concrete example

A California lawyer checks approved financial institutions and the applicable client-fund criteria before opening or using an IOLTA account.

Technical notes & boundaries

California is used as a sourced example. Other jurisdictions have their own schemes and rules; IOLTA is not a global name for all trust accounting.

Go to the source.

Original references used for this definition. Product details and standards can change.

  1. 01State Bar of California: IOLTA guidelineshttps://www.calbar.ca.gov/legal-professionals/maintaining-compliance/client-trust-account-protection-program-ctapp/iolta-guidelines-attorneys
  2. 02State Bar of California: client trust account guidelineshttps://www.calbar.ca.gov/legal-professionals/maintaining-compliance/client-trust-accounting-iolta/client-trust-account-guidelines-attorneys