In Re: Amendments to Rules Regulating the Florida Bar - Rule 5-1.1

Supreme Court of Florida
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No. SC2025-1730
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IN RE: AMENDMENTS TO RULES REGULATING THE FLORIDA
BAR – RULE 5-1.1.

June 4, 2026

PER CURIAM.

The Florida Bar petitions this Court to amend Rule Regulating

The Florida Bar 5-1.1 (Trust Accounts). 1 The proposed

amendments change the minimum interest rate in rule 5-1.1(g)(5)

(Eligible Institution Participation in IOTA)2 that banks and other

financial institutions participating in the Interest on Trust Account

(IOTA) program must pay on deposited funds. With this change,

the interest rate provision in the rule would match recently enacted

1. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 15, Fla. Const.; see also
R. Regulating Fla. Bar 1-12.1.

2. This Court first adopted a voluntary IOTA program in 1978,
and then made participation mandatory for Bar members in 1989.
See In re Int. on Tr. Accts., 538 So. 2d 448 (Fla. 1989). Since 1990,
the IOTA program rule has included a provision governing interest
rates. See R. Regulating Fla. Bar 5-1.1(d)(4) (1990).
legislation on the same subject, see Fla. HB 893 (2026). The

Florida Bar’s Board of Governors approved the proposed

amendments in concept by a voice vote on September 19, 2025, and

the Board of Governors’ Executive Committee later unanimously

approved the text of the proposed amendments. 3

Consistent with rule 1-12.1(g), the Bar published formal notice

of its intent to file the proposed amendments on its website and in

The Florida Bar News. The notice directed interested parties to file

comments directly with the Court. No comments were received.

The Court, having considered the petition, hereby amends rule

5-1.1 as proposed by the Bar. Under the amended rule, banks and

financial institutions participating in the IOTA program must “pay,

net of all fees and charges assessed by the eligible financial

institution, the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate in effect on the first

business day of each month less 300 basis points (3.00%) with a

floor of 0.25% and a ceiling of 1.50%.”

Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 5-1.1 is amended as set forth

3. To the extent the Bar did not follow the procedures in rule
1-12.1 in proposing these amendments, we waive the requirements
of that rule. See R. Regulating Fla. Bar 1-12.1(i).

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in the appendix to this opinion. Deletions are indicated by struck-

through type, and new language is indicated by underscoring. The

amendments shall become effective June 30, 2026, at 12:01 a.m.

It is so ordered.

MUÑIZ, C.J., and LABARGA, COURIEL, GROSSHANS, FRANCIS,
and SASSO, JJ., concur.
TANENBAUM, J., dissents with an opinion.

THE FILING OF A MOTION FOR REHEARING SHALL NOT ALTER
THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THESE AMENDMENTS.

TANENBAUM, J., dissenting.

This rule—both the proposed new text and the text it

replaces—far exceeds the limited scope of this court’s regulatory

and rule-making authority under the Florida Constitution. The

only regulatory authority this court has concerns the “admission”

and “discipline” of lawyers. Art. V, § 15, Fla. Const. The only

administrative rule-making authority the court has pertains to the

“practice and procedure in” and “the administrative supervision of

all courts.” Art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const. Yet, through the rule being

amended, the court continues its attempt to regulate the interest

the banks pay on money deposited with them as part of its interest-

skimming Interest on Trust Accounts (“IOTA”) program. While the

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rule characterizes financial institutions’ participation in the IOTA

program as “voluntary,” it still mandates those participating

institutions pay a rate meeting court-set parameters. One still

must ask, though: “Or else what?”

The court of course is free to require lawyers under its

disciplinary control to avoid mingling interest earned on their

clients’ funds deposited in trust. It could even set what minimum

interest rate lawyers must pursue when shopping for financial

institutions for their trust accounts, to the extent such a rate were

available. But the court’s construing its lawyer-discipline authority

as also reaching financial institutions who agree to accept lawyers’

trust accounts, frankly, is laughable.

Most everyone knows that the Florida Constitution vests the

State’s sovereign legislative power in a senate and house of

representatives. See Art. III, § 1, Fla. Const. That means the

Legislature is the primary lawgiver—the maker of substantive

policy—for the State. Indeed, there is an entire title in the Florida

Statutes, enacted by the Legislature, devoted to regulating financial

institutions. See Title XXXVIII, Fla. Stat. This court has no similar

authority regarding financial institutions, even when they choose to

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participate in some project the court has set up under its lawyer-

discipline authority. The court should simply stand down and leave

the regulation of financial institutions to the Legislature.

Original Proceeding – Florida Rules Regulating The Florida Bar

Rosalyn Sia Baker-Barnes, President, Michael Fox Orr, President-
elect, Joshua E. Doyle, Executive Director, Elizabeth Clark Tarbert,
Division Director, Lawyer Regulation, and Kelly N. Smith, Senior
Attorney, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida,

for Petitioner

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APPENDIX

RULE 5-1.1. TRUST ACCOUNTS

(a) – (f) [No Change]

(g) Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program.

(1) – (4) [No Change]

(5) Eligible Institution Participation in IOTA. Participation
in the IOTA program is voluntary for banks, credit unions, savings
and loan associations, and investment companies. Institutions that
choose to offer and maintain IOTA accounts must meet the
following requirements:pay, net of all fees and charges assessed by
the eligible financial institution, the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate
in effect on the first business day of each month less 300 basis
points (3.00%) with a floor of 0.25% and a ceiling of 1.50%.

(A) Interest Rates and Dividends. Eligible
institutions must maintain IOTA accounts that pay the highest
interest rate or dividend generally available from the institution to
its non-IOTA business or consumer account customers, or its non-
maturing deposit account customers when IOTA accounts meet or
exceed the same minimum balance qualifications.

(B) Determination of Interest Rates and Dividends.
In determining the highest interest rate or dividend generally
available from the institution to its non-IOTA accounts in
compliance with subdivision (5)(A), above, eligible institutions may
consider factors, in addition to the IOTA account balance,
customarily considered by the institution when setting interest
rates or dividends for its customers, provided that these factors do
not discriminate between IOTA accounts and accounts of non-IOTA
customers, and that these factors do not include that the account is
an IOTA account. When the Wall Street Journal Prime Rate
(“indexed rate”) is between 325 and 499 basis points (3.25% and
4.99%), the minimum interest rate paid net of all fees and service
charges (“yield”) must be no less than 300 basis points (3.00%)

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below the indexed rate in effect on the first business day of each
month. When the indexed rate is 500 basis points (5.00%) or
above, the yield must be no less than 40% of the indexed rate in
effect on the first business day of each month.

(C6) Eligible Institution Remittance and Reporting
Instructions. Eligible institutions must:

(iA) calculate and remit interest or dividends on
the balance of the deposited funds, in accordance with the
institution’s standard practice for non-IOTA account customers,
less reasonable service charges or fees, if any,subject to the
determination of required interest rates above in connection with
the deposited funds, at least quarterly, to the foundation;

(iiB) transmit with each remittance to the
foundation a statement showing the name of the lawyer or law firm
from whose IOTA account the remittance is sent, the lawyer’s or law
firm’s IOTA account number as assigned by the institution, the rate
of interest applied, the period for which the remittance is made, the
total interest or dividend earned during the remittance period, the
amount and description of any service charges or fees assessed
during the remittance period, and the net amount of interest or
dividend remitted for the period; and

(iiiC) transmit to the depositing lawyer or law firm,
for each remittance, a statement showing the amount of interest or
dividend paid to the foundation, the rate of interest applied, and the
period for which the statement is made.

(67) Small Fund Amounts. The foundation may establish
procedures for a lawyer or law firm to maintain an interest-free
trust account for client and third-person funds that are nominal or
short term when their nominal or short-term trust funds cannot
reasonably be expected to produce or have not produced interest
income net of reasonable eligible institution service charges or fees.

(78) Confidentiality and Disclosure. The foundation must
protect the confidentiality of information regarding a lawyer’s or law

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firm’s trust account obtained by virtue of this rule. However, the
foundation must, on an official written inquiry of The Florida Bar
made in the course of an investigation conducted under these Rules
Regulating The Florida Bar, disclose requested relevant information
about the location and account numbers of lawyer or law firm trust
accounts.

(89) Distribution of IOTA Funds by the Foundation. No
later than 6 months after the fiscal year, the foundation must
distribute to 1 or more qualified grantee organizations all IOTA
funds collected that fiscal year except for direct expenses required
to administer the IOTA funds, funds required to fund the Loan
Repayment Assistance Program, and an additional reserve amount
if requested by the foundation and approved by the court. Prior to
distribution, the foundation must maintain IOTA funds separate
from other foundation funds. The foundation may not condition
distribution of IOTA funds to a qualified grantee organization on
payment to the foundation for any purpose, including training or
technology. The foundation must select qualified grantee
organizations based on objective standards it develops. When
adopted, the foundation must provide those standards to both The
Florida Bar and the court and also prominently publish those
standards on the foundation’s website. The standards must require
that IOTA funds be used to facilitate or directly provide qualified
legal services by qualified legal services providers and, to ensure fair
distribution of IOTA funds across Florida, must consider relevant
data, including:

(A) – (B) [No Change]

(910) Use of IOTA Funds by Qualified Grantee
Organizations. A qualified grantee organization must expend at
least 85% of the IOTA funds received to facilitate qualified legal
service providers providing or facilitating the provision of qualified
legal services or, if such expenditures in any given year constitute
less than 85% of the IOTA funds received, provide to the foundation
a written justification. A qualified grantee organization must
expend no more than 15% of the IOTA funds received for general
administrative expenses not directly supporting the provision of

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qualified legal services and establishing reserves or, if such
expenditures in any given year constitute more than 15% of the
IOTA funds received, provide to the foundation a written
justification. Except as provided below, general administrative
expenses include rent, training, and technology. Expenditures to
facilitate qualified legal service providers providing or facilitating the
provision of qualified legal services are limited to:

(A) – (D) [No Change]

(1011) Reporting by the Foundation. In addition to
providing the court with a copy of the annual audit of IOTA funds,
the foundation must annually certify to the court its compliance
with this rule’s requirements on the use of IOTA funds. This
certification must include, but not be limited to:

(A) – (I) [No Change]

(1112) Reporting by Qualified Grantee Organizations.
Qualified grantee organizations must annually certify to the
foundation their compliance with this rule’s requirements on the
use of IOTA funds. This certification must include, but not be
limited to:

(A) – (H) [No Change]

(1213) Required Review. The court will cause a review of
the amendments to rule 5-1.1(g) finally adopted by the court on
June 18, 2021, to be conducted to advise the court regarding their
overall efficacy 2 years after their effective date. The scope of this
review may also include any other matters related to the IOTA
program.

(h) – (k) [No Change]

Comment
[No Change]

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Foundation Provision of Training and Technology; Grantees’
Funds from Non-IOTA Sources
[No Change]

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