IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts)
- Summary
Opportunity Bank is an approved financial institution by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Texas as a participant in the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program. This unique partnership between the banking community and the legal profession provides hundreds of thousands of people across the country the legal help they need.
Through the voluntary IOLTA program, lawyers and law firms can help generate much needed funds to provide civil legal services to the poor. This beneficial program raises approximately $11 million annually without taxing the public and at no cost to lawyers or their clients.
How It Works
Lawyers routinely hold funds for their clients. In many cases, the amounts are nominal and/or held for a short period of time. In these cases, account service fees would offset or exceed any interest earned. By depositing these funds into an IOLTA, however, they are pooled with other IOLTA deposits to generate a substantial interest used to fund non-profits that provide free legal aid to low income Texans.
NOTE: If a client's funds represent a significant sum and/or the deposit will mature long enough to earn a profit on interest even after account fees are accounted for, the CLIENT will receive the interest, not IOLTA.
