Do all lawyers have to establish an IOLTA account?
A. No. All lawyers must be in compliance with Maryland’s IOLTA law, but compliance does not necessarily require having an IOLTA account. Maryland’s mandatory IOLTA program (Maryland Business Occupations Code, Section 10-303) requires all Maryland attorneys holding qualified client funds (i.e., funds that are nominal in amount or funds that will not be held for long enough to generate net interest for the individual client) to establish an IOLTA account. Thus, not every lawyer’s trust account will be an IOLTA account. For example, if the deposit is large enough and/or will be held long enough to generate net interest for the client, the attorney should hold those trust funds in a separate interest-bearing account for the individual client. Also, a lawyer holding IOLTA-eligible funds may request a waiver from participation in the IOLTA program if the bank assesses allowable reasonable fees on the account and the lawyer believes that such fees will consistently exceed interest earned on t
