Trust accounting rules every Florida firm must follow, explained in plain English, with the checklist we use in the field.
Reviewed by Fred J. Daus, EA, MBA, NTPI Fellow, Certified Tax Planner · Last reviewed July 2026
Client money in your trust account is not yours, and the Florida Bar treats its handling as a matter of professional fitness. Rule 5-1.1 and its relatives govern every dollar in, every dollar out, and the records in between. Errors that would be ordinary bookkeeping mistakes anywhere else are discipline cases here. The good news: compliance is a routine, and routines can be designed.
The heart of compliance is a monthly three-way reconciliation. Three numbers must agree: the trust bank statement balance, the trust ledger balance in your books, and the sum of every individual client ledger. Two of three agreeing is not compliance. The reconciliation must be performed monthly, documented, reviewed by a lawyer in the firm, and kept for six years.
Commingling earned fees with client funds by leaving them in trust too long. Disbursing against deposits that have not cleared. Client ledgers that were never maintained transaction by transaction. Service charges hitting the trust account instead of the operating account. Old, unclaimed balances nobody researched. None of these start as dishonesty; all of them end as grievances if an audit arrives first.
Our field checklist covers: a dedicated IOLTA at an approved institution; signatory limits; no personal or operating funds in trust beyond the permitted cushion; deposits recorded by client and matter; disbursements only against collected funds; individual client ledgers current at all times; monthly three-way reconciliation performed and signed; lawyer review documented; fee transfers made promptly when earned; bank charges isolated from client funds; unclaimed funds handled under Bar procedure; and six years of records, retrievable on request. If any box is unchecked in your firm, that is the place to start.
Our law firm group performs the monthly three-way reconciliation, maintains the client ledgers, documents everything to Bar standards, and hands your managing partner a clean review packet each month. The first conversation is free, and if your current process already checks every box, we will tell you so.
Tell us where your finances live today, even if that means fragmented providers and disconnected responsibilities. We will show you what one coordinated firm takes off your plate.
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