(a) A lawyer shall hold property of clients or third persons that is in a lawyer’s possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer’s own property. Funds shall be kept in a separate account or accounts maintained in the state where the lawyer’s office is situated, or elsewhere with the consent of the client or third person. Other property shall be identified as such and appropriately safeguarded. Complete records of such account funds and other property shall be kept by the lawyer and shall be preserved for a period of seven years after termination of the representation.

(b) Upon receiving funds or other property in which a client or third person has an interest, a lawyer shall promptly notify the client or third person. Except as stated in this rule or otherwise permitted by law or by agreement with the client, a lawyer shall promptly deliver to the client or third person any funds or other property that the client or third person is entitled to receive and, upon request by the client or third person, shall promptly render a full accounting regarding such property.

(c) When in the course of representation a lawyer is in possession of property in which both the lawyer and another person claim interests, the property shall be kept separate by the lawyer until there is an accounting and severance of their interests. If a dispute arises concerning their respective interests, the portion in dispute shall be kept separate by the lawyer until the dispute is resolved.

(d) All nominal or short-term funds of clients or third persons held by a lawyer or law firm, including advances for costs and expenses, and funds belonging in part to a client or third person and in part presently or potentially to the lawyer or law firm, shall be deposited in one or more pooled interest- or dividend-bearing trust accounts, hereinafter “IOLTA accounts,” established with an eligible financial institution selected by a lawyer or law firm in the exercise of ordinary prudence, and with the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois designated as income beneficiary. Each IOLTA account shall comply with the following provisions:

(1) Each lawyer or law firm in receipt of nominal or short-term client funds shall establish one or more IOLTA accounts with an eligible financial institution authorized by federal or state law to do business in the state of Illinois. An eligible financial institution is a bank or a savings bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or an open-end investment company registered with the Security and Exchange Commission, which offers IOLTA accounts within the requirements of this rule as administered by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.

(2) Eligible institutions shall maintain IOLTA accounts that pay the highest interest rate or dividend available from the institution to its non-IOLTA account customers when IOLTA accounts meet or exceed the same minimum balance or other account eligibility guidelines, if any. In determining the highest interest rate or dividend generally available from the institution to its non-IOLTA accounts, eligible institutions may consider factors, in addition to the IOLTA account balance, customarily considered by the institution when setting interest rates or dividends for its customers, provided that such factors do not discriminate between IOLTA accounts and accounts of non-IOLTA customers, and that these factors do not include that the account is an IOLTA account.

(3) An IOLTA account that meets the highest comparable rate- or dividend-standard set forth in (d)(2) must use one of the identified account options as an IOLTA account, or pay the equivalent yield on an existing IOLTA account in lieu of using the highest-yield bank product:

(a) a checking account paying preferred interest rates, such as money market or indexed rates, or any other suitable interest-bearing deposit account offered by the eligible institution to its non-IOLTA customers.

(b) for accounts with balances of $100,000 or more, a business checking account with automated investment feature, such as an overnight sweep and investment in repurchase agreements fully collateralized by U.S. Government securities as defined in (f).

(c) for accounts with balances of $100,000 or more, an open-end money market fund with, or tied to, check-writing capacity solely invested in or fully collateralized by U.S. Government securities.

(4) As an alternative to the account options in (3), the financial institution may pay a “safe harbor” yield equal to 70% of the Federal Funds Target Rate.

(5) A lawyer or law firm may maintain funds belonging to the lawyer or law firm in the IOLTA account to meet minimum balance requirements and to pay bank charges.

(6) Each lawyer or law firm shall direct the eligible financial institution to remit monthly earnings on the IOLTA account directly to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois. For each individual IOLTA account, the eligible financial institution shall provide: a statement transmitted with each remittance showing the name of the lawyer or law firm directing that the remittance be sent; the account number; the remittance period; the rate of interest applied; the account balance on which the interest was calculated, the reasonable service fee(s) if any; the gross earnings for the remittance period; and the net amount of earnings remitted. Remittances shall be sent to the Lawyers Trust Fund electronically unless otherwise agreed. Fees in excess of the earnings accrued on an individual IOLTA account for any month shall not be taken from earnings accrued on other IOLTA accounts or from the principal of the account.

(7) Each lawyer or law firm shall deposit into such interest-bearing trust accounts all clients’ funds which are nominal in amount or are expected to be held for a short period of time.

(8) The decision as to whether funds are nominal in amount or are expected to be held for a short period of time rests exclusively in the sound judgment of the lawyer or law firm, and no charge of ethical impropriety or other breach of professional conduct shall attend a lawyer’s or law firm’s judgment on what is nominal or short term.

(e) Ordinarily, in determining the type of account into which to deposit particular funds for a client or third person, a lawyer or a law firm shall take into consideration the following factors:

(1) the amount of interest which the funds would earn during the period they are expected to be held and the likelihood of delay in the relevant transaction or proceeding; (2) the cost of establishing and administering the account, including the cost of the lawyer’s services; (3) the capability of the financial institution, through subaccounting, to calculate and pay interest earned by each client’s funds, net of any transaction costs, to the individual client.

(f) Definitions

(1) “IOLTA account” means an interest- or dividend-bearing trust account benefiting the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, established in an eligible institution for the deposit of nominal or short-term funds of clients or third persons as defined in (d) and from which funds may be withdrawn upon request as soon as permitted by law.

(2) “Open-end money market fund” is a fund of an open-end investment company that must hold itself out as a money market fund as defined by applicable federal statutes and regulations under the Investment Act of 1940, and, at the time of the investment, have total assets of at least $250 million.

(3) “U.S. Government securities” refers to U.S. Treasury obligations and obligations issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest or any AAA-rated United States agency or instrumentality thereof. A daily overnight financial repurchase agreement (“repo”) may be established only with an institution that is deemed to be “well capitalized” or “adequately capitalized” as defined by applicable federal statutes and regulations.

(4) “Safe harbor” is a yield that if paid by the financial institution on IOLTA accounts shall be deemed as a comparable return in compliance with this rule. Such yield shall be calculated as 70% of the Federal Funds Target Rate as reported in the Wall Street Journal on the first business day of the calendar month.

(5) “Allowable reasonable fees” for IOLTA accounts are per check charges, per deposit charges, a fee in lieu of a minimum balance, federal deposit insurance fees, automated investment (“sweep”) fees, and a reasonable maintenance fee, if those fees are charged on comparable bank accounts maintained by non-IOLTA depositors. All other fees are the responsibility of, and may be charged to, the lawyer or law firm maintaining the IOLTA account.

(g) In the closing of a real estate transaction, a lawyer’s disbursement of funds deposited but not collected shall not violate his or her duty pursuant to this Rule 1.15 if, prior to the closing, the lawyer has established a segregated Real Estate Funds Account (REFA) maintained solely for the receipt and disbursement of such funds, has deposited such funds into a REFA, and:

(1) is acting as a closing agent pursuant to an insured closing letter for a title insurance company licensed in the State of Illinois and uses for such funds a segregated REFA maintained solely for such title insurance business; or

(2) has met the “good-funds” requirements. The good-funds requirements shall be met if the bank in which the REFA was established has agreed in a writing directed to the lawyer to honor all disbursement orders drawn on that REFA for all transactions up to a specified dollar amount not less than the total amount being deposited in good funds. Good funds shall include only the following forms of deposits:

(a) a certified check,

(b) a check issued by the State of Illinois, the United States, or a political subdivision of the State of Illinois or the United States,

(c) a cashier’s check, teller’s check, bank money order, or official bank check drawn on or issued by a financial institution insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or a comparable agency of the federal or state government,

(d) a check drawn on the trust account of any lawyer or real estate broker licensed under the laws of any state,

(e) a personal check or checks in an aggregate amount not exceeding $5,000 per closing if the lawyer making the deposit has reasonable and prudent grounds to believe that the deposit will be irrevocably credited to the REFA,

(f) a check drawn on the account of or issued by a lender approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development as either a supervised or a nonsupervised mortgagee as defined in 24 C.F.R. §202.2,

(g) a check from a title insurance company licensed in the State of Illinois, or from a title insurance agent of the title insurance company, provided that the title insurance company has guaranteed the funds of that title insurance agent. Without limiting the rights of the lawyer against any person, it shall be the responsibility of the disbursing lawyer to reimburse the trust account for such funds that are not collected and for any fees, charges and interest assessed by the paying bank on account of such funds being uncollected.