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The Delaware Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts Program (IOLTA)

was first authorized on September 29, 1983 by an Order of the Delaware Supreme Court. The program is funded by interest accruing on lawyers’ aggregated escrow accounts that contain client deposits which are small in amount or held for a short period of time. The interest collected on participating accounts is transferred to the Delaware Bar Foundation (the Foundation). Guided by its board, the Foundation distributes this income in the form of grants to agencies that promote and improve legal services for the poor.

Delaware Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct require that IOLTA funds be maintained in financial institutions, approved by the Foundation, that provide so-called “interest rate comparability” to IOLTA accounts.  Interest rate comparability means that the interest rate payable by financial institutions for IOLTA accounts must be no less than rates paid by the same institution on its comparable accounts.

The list of financial institutions eligible to participate in Delaware’s IOLTA Program can be found here. For more information please review Rule 1.15 of Delaware’s Rules of Professional Conduct. Questions regarding a lawyer or law firm’s participation in IOLTA can be directed to the Foundation’s offices.