2022 GRANT APPLICANTS

The grant application deadline for the 2022 IOLTA Discretionary Grant Program was Friday, August 13, 2021.

Shortly after the application deadline, the Fund begins the process of evaluating all requests for grants.  Final decisions for 2022 grants will be made in late November. All applicants, successful and unsuccessful, will be notified of the Board’s decision by December 3, 2021.

It is too soon to determine the size of the 2022 grant pool. Our funding availability depends upon the rate of interest we earn on attorney trust account balances. Due to the Pandemic and economic issues related to the Pandemic Interest rates have been falling since March 2020  and will continue to have a negative impact on our 2021 revenues. It is too early to determine to what degree this impact will have on  revenues.   In any event, there can be no assurance that the Fund will grant the requested amount to any applicant or that repeat applicants will receive continued funding. 

New Jersey attorneys should be alert to scams involving attorney trust accounts.

All new attorney trust accounts should be opened as non-interest bearing checking accounts. Please instruct the attorney or law firm to call IOLTA to request registration forms.

If your bank is providing digital images, you should know that attorneys are required to comply with Rule 1:21-6(b) which mandates no more than two checks per page (front and back).

On December 18, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act creating deposit insurance parity for credit unions by directing the National Credit Union Administration to extend share insurance coverage to trust accounts such as IOLTA and other similar accounts.

On December 18, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act creating deposit insurance parity for credit unions by directing the National Credit Union Administration to extend share insurance coverage to trust accounts such as IOLTA and other similar accounts. While new rules have not been published yet, the Act was effective immediately. Credit unions must first be approved by the Office of Attorney Ethics before offering attorney trust accounts to law firms.