Updated: April 2, 2025

IOLTA and Client Trust Accounts

The WSBA publication, Managing Client Trust Accounts Booklet, provides guidance on how to manage a trust account and recordkeeping requirements. For help with trust-account reconciliations, fill out the WSBA’s Monthly Reconciliation and Review Report form.

For IOLTA questions relating to the Rules of Professional Conduct please call our Ethics Line at 206-727-8284.

If you have questions on how to manage your trust account please set up a practice management consultation with our Practice Management Advisor here.

Learn more about the Ethics Line. Learn more about Practice Management Assistance.

The Legal Foundation of Washington (LFW) maintains the list of financial institutions authorized to offer IOLTA accounts, available on its website. The LFW website has forms available on its website to take to the bank when opening an IOLTA or individual trust account. Please contact Linda Graham, with LFW, at 206-957-6282 with any questions regarding authorized banks or opening accounts.

Trust Account Check Register and Client Ledger Templates

The Washington State Bar Association has developed sample check register and client ledger templates, which lawyers may choose to use to track client funds in their trust account.  The templates are in Excel format and are formatted as tables with formulas to calculate the running balance in both the check register and individual client ledgers.  Certain cells are locked to ensure formulas and other functions are unchanged. The Excel workbook includes a sample check register and client ledger and blank templates that lawyers may use in their practices.

To use the templates, simply enter the information for each receipt, disbursement, or transfer of trust account funds on the rows in the templates.  The balance column will automatically update after a credit or debit is entered.  Each transaction entered on the check register must also be entered on a corresponding client ledger.  In the “Payor/Payee” column, enter the name of the payor when funds are received and the name of the payee when funds are disbursed.  In the “Check Number” column, enter the number of the trust account check used to disburse funds.  You need not enter a check number if funds were not disbursed by check.  More instructions are found in the templates.  For more information on trust account recordkeeping requirements, see RPC 1.15A and RPC 1.15B and the Managing Client Trust Accounts booklet.

These templates are provided as guidance only and the use of these templates is optional.  The Washington State Bar Association makes no warranties concerning the use of these templates.  Lawyers are ultimately responsible for following the relevant rules and maintaining accurate trust account records.  If using these templates, lawyers must ensure all entries are correct and the running balance is accurate.

Trust Account Overdrafts

Banks report trust account overdrafts and checks presented against insufficient funds (whether or not paid) to the Washington State Bar Association. Lawyers, LPOs, and LLLTs are also required to notify the WSBA of a trust account overdraft.

For lawyers, if a trust account is overdrawn, or if a check is presented against insufficient funds, a lawyer must report the overdraft and provide a full explanation of the cause of the overdraft to Disciplinary Counsel  Benjamin Attanasio. LPOs and LLLTs must report this information to Bobby Henry, RSD Associate Director. See Washington Supreme Court Rule 15.4 of the Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct (ELC), the Rules for Enforcement of LPO Conduct (ELPOC) or the Rules for Enforcement of LLLT Conduct (ELLLTC) available on the Washington Courts website.

A trust account overdraft may result in a grievance investigation. See ELC 5.3, ELPOC 5.3, or ELLLTC 5.3.

Random Examinations

Under Rule 15.1(a) of the Washington Supreme Court's Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel is authorized to examine the books and records of any lawyer or law firm selected at random to determine whether the lawyer or law firm is complying with Rule 1.15A of the Washington Supreme Court's Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), RPC 1.15B, and the other RPC referenced in RPC 1.15A or RPC 1.15B.

Resources

ELC 15.7 (Trust Accounts and the Legal Foundation of Washington)
WSBA Advisory Opinion 1957 (whether lawyer is required to open multiple accounts to ensure full FDIC coverage) 
WSBA Trust Account Information FAQs
Sophisticated Scams Abound – Florida Bar News
What you need to know about this new cashier’s check scam – May 12, 2016, NWSidebar article

This website contains information, not legal advice. While the Washington State Bar Association will make every effort to update the information on this site as necessary, it is the responsibility of the member to ensure that they are following the most current version of the relevant rules. Nothing contained on this website is intended to address any specific inquiry, nor is it a substitute for independent legal research to original sources or for obtaining the advice of legal counsel.