Law Firm Trust Account / IOLTA Resources

Law firm pooled trust account (IOLTA / IOLA /  IOTA / COLTAF) financial reporting and bookkeeping requirements are not well understood by most law firm owners and law firm management teams. We use several resources when explaining law firm trust accounting requirements.

1. Example IOLTA Trust Account Reconciliation Report Package
2. Trust Accounting Guides provided by some states
3. Rules of professional conduct references

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Example IOLTA Trust Account Reconciliation Report Package

The state bar associations do not provide clear examples of reporting requirements. The ethics rules and trust accounting guides have long narratives on procedural requirements, but do not depict the required final reporting. After many conversations trying to explain the requirements, we created an example report package. We will share copies of the example reports with firms during our sales process. We will also share copies of the example report when requested by an attorney with a law firm email address. 

Trust Accounting Guides

Many states have detailed guides on trust accounting processes and requirements. Example guides are:

California

Texas

Rules of Professional Conduct

The ABA model rules of professional conduct discuss IOLTA reporting requirements in Rule 1.15. Most states also cover IOLTA reporting requirements in their local rule 1.15.State Trust account resources are available from the below links.