Texas IOLTA Compliance: Abandoned Funds and Eligible Banks
Published by Holvine LLC · Reviewed by Richard Kaplan · Last reviewed on
This page covers two specific, currently effective pieces of Texas trust account law — SB 658’s handling of abandoned IOLTA funds, and the eligible-institution requirement for IOLTA accounts — not the whole of Texas trust accounting requirements.
SB 658: abandoned and unclaimed IOLTA funds
SB 658 (88th Regular Session), effective September 1, 2023, changed where abandoned or unclaimed Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) funds end up. When such funds are delivered to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts as unclaimed property, the Comptroller must deposit them to the credit of the basic civil legal services account of the judicial fund, rather than holding them as ordinary unclaimed property. The Texas Supreme Court can only use that money for court-approved programs that provide basic civil legal services to indigent people, and the Court must reimburse the Comptroller for any claims later paid out of funds that were deposited this way.
Eligible financial institutions
The Supreme Court of Texas has adopted IOLTA rules requiring Texas attorneys to place their IOLTA accounts at eligible financial institutions — the Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF) administers eligibility and maintains the list of institutions that qualify. An institution seeking eligibility must go through TAJF’s qualification process before attorneys can hold IOLTA funds there.
[À VÉRIFIER : au-delà de la redirection des fonds abandonnés (SB 658) et de l’exigence d’institution éligible, aucune autre exigence IOLTA du Texas n’est documentée sur cette page. En particulier, aucune date ni ordonnance du 4 décembre 2024 n’est confirmée par une source primaire — ne pas l’ajouter tant qu’elle ne l’est pas.]