Checklist · Trust accounting & handling client money
Check before a trust-to-operating transfer (United States)
A check, before any transfer from a client trust account to the operating account, that the fee is earned or the expense incurred, the client has the direction and the bill, and no disputed amount is included.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Red You write the text. The tool writes nothing into the document. Where permitted, it may check, clarify or collect data, and anything it checks or collects is verified.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use immediately before a proposed transfer from a client trust account to the firm operating account for fees or expenses. Do not use it to open the account, to reconcile the month, or to decide a dispute about ownership.
Used for these tasks
- Check a trust-to-office transfer against the bill and the authority
- Reconcile the trust ledger to the bank and the matter files
- Prepare a trust-inspection pack from the ledgers and authorities
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
A tool may place the bill, the direction and the ledger figures the lawyer supplies into a comparison table. The lawyer decides whether any amount may move. The tool writes nothing that authorizes the transfer.
AI may
- Build a comparison of the bill total, the direction, the trust balance and the amount proposed to be transferred, using only figures the lawyer or the ledger supplies
- Mark a proposed transfer that is larger than the undisputed amount on the bill
- List missing items: no direction, no bill, no date the bill was sent, or a blank dispute response
AI must not
- Must not say that a fee has been earned or that an expense has been incurred
- Must not approve, initiate or describe as ready any transfer
- Must not treat a client's silence as consent to a disputed amount
- Must not pull an account number from an email into the payment instruction
The lawyer checks
- The amount is earned fees or incurred expenses under the jurisdiction's rule, and not a flat fee or retainer the rule still requires to be held
- The client has the direction and the bill, and any disputed part is left in trust
- The destination account is the firm operating account already on the firm's records, confirmed other than by the message that requested the payment
- A named lawyer, not a tool, authorizes the transfer and the ledger entry
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
- 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
- Index for a trust investigation or external examination
All precedents for Trust accounting & handling client money · Tasks and AI use in this area