
Lawyer Trust Accounts and Unclaimed Property
I've had several discussions with fellow lawyers recently about unclaimed property and about whether unclaimed property laws apply to lawyer trust accounts. And nothing like a good networking event question to trigger a blog post, right? Not to mention, one of the fastest and easiest ways to get disbarred is to inappropriately manage your IOLTA account or other client funds. What is Unclaimed Property? Unclaimed property is a set of state laws that govern checks, bank accounts, and other financial assets that are abandoned. Meaning that you do not know the rightful owner of the funds or cannot find the rightful owner if you do know who they are. Or just cannot make the owner cash the check, no matter what. Instead of a holder, in this case a lawyer,…