Trust accounting pilot to launch.

The Florida Bar Board of Governors has approved a contract allowing TMI Trust Company, Inc., to work with Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., (FIS) on the development of an automated trust accounting system that promises to make life easier for thousands of attorneys.

The unanimous vote came at a May 18 board meeting in Key West, but only after a round of cheers and a burst of applause. The contract calls for a 90-day development phase followed by the launch in late August of a six-month pilot program of the FIS AddVantage platform that would allow lawyers, if they make the correct entries when they deposit or withdraw funds under certain parameters, to automatically comply with the Bar's trust accounting rules.

Special Committee on Trust Accounting Solutions Chair Andy Sasso said the committee, working with Bar members and staff, will soon be selecting about a dozen lawyers from small, medium, and large firms to participate in the pilot program.

"The goal of the program is to do all of the trust accounting as required by Chapter 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar," Sasso said. "There's discussion of a standing board policy that will provide if the lawyer uses reasonable care and is acting in good faith using the program, then they will be in compliance."

The Florida Bar Foundation, which draws the bulk of its revenue from the IOTA program, will be another potential winner, Sasso says.

Currently there is about $5.5 billion in some 33,000 IOTA accounts spread across nearly 200 separate banks, Sasso said. Earning an average of 11 basis points in interest, the accounts generate about $6 million annually for the Foundation.

All funds held in any IOTA accounts established pursuant to the terms of the program will be deposited into the FIS FDIC Insured Deposit Sweep Program offered by Total Bank Solutions, LLC, which was recently paying 150 basis points. The Florida Bar Foundation will receive a rate of return equal to 80 percent of the published rate for the FIS FDIC Insured Deposit Sweep Program, so even if only 10 percent of the trust funds move into the program, the Foundation could...