Checklist · Trust accounting & handling client money
Index for a trust investigation or external examination
Index of trust records to gather when an investigator or external examiner asks for them, and a cover note recording what the principal produced and what was held back.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales, Western Australia
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 5 authorities it cites, for New South Wales and Western Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when the practice is asked to produce trust records for an investigation or external examination. The principal decides the scope of the request before anything is sent. Do not use the index as the response itself.
Used for these tasks
- Prepare a trust-inspection pack from the ledgers and authorities
- Reconcile the trust ledger to the bank and the matter files
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may tick which of the listed records exist in a file list the principal supplies. The principal decides what the request covers and what is produced.
AI may
- Match file names in a supplied list to the rows of this index
- List rows that have no matching document
AI must not
- Must not decide that a document is within the request or that privilege has been waived
- Must not export client advice, barrister opinions or unrelated matters into the pack
- Must not send the pack
The lawyer checks
- The request is read, and only records within it are included
- Reconciliations, authorities and statements are the copies kept under the Rules, not recreations
- Anything withheld is described on the cover note, and the principal has signed it
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Trust accounting & handling client money
- Client authority to withdraw trust money for legal costs, with notice of withdrawal and pre-transfer checklist (Uniform Law)
- Direction to pay money into the law practice trust account
- Client direction for an IOLTA or separate trust deposit (United States)
- Written direction to pay trust money to a third party
- Payment-redirection and deepfake call-back verification protocol for trust disbursements
- Check before a trust-to-operating transfer (United States)
- Review checklist for AI-assisted monthly trust reconciliation (Uniform General Rules r 48)
- Unidentified trust money register and enquiry
- Notice that funds were received into trust (United States)
- Client notice: our bank details will never change by email (payment fraud and deepfake warning)
- Trust account statement to the person for whom money is held
- File note when trust funds are disputed (United States)
- Controls standard: AI tools and trust records (read-only access, no payment functions, audit trail)
- Trust irregularity briefing note for the principal
All precedents for Trust accounting & handling client money · Tasks and AI use in this area