The Florida Bar Foundation

The Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) program was implemented by the Florida Supreme Court in 1981. The nation’s first IOTA program, it serves as a model for similar programs across the country and creates millions of dollars in funding for legal aid each year. IOTA contributions are allocated annually to the three uses for IOTA funds, approved by the Florida Supreme Court:

• Legal Assistance for the Poor

• Improvements in the Administration of Justice

• Law Student Assistance

Under IOTA, all nominal or short-term funds of clients or third persons are pooled into an interest-bearing checking account benefiting IOTA that "...the lawyer has determined cannot practicably be invested for the benefit of the client or third person." Although the Florida Supreme Court requires that all nominal or short-term funds of clients or third persons be deposited into IOTA accounts, client or third-person trust funds that lawyers or law firms determine can earn income for the individual client or third person, in excess of the costs to secure such income, cannot be deposited into IOTA accounts.