In accordance with the Solicitors Accounts Rules, it is the firm’s policy to account to its clients for a sum of money in relation to interest earnt on any money held on behalf of a client at any time as part of the service we provide. We aim to account for such interest on a fair and reasonable basis. In particular:
- client monies will normally be held in general client bank accounts, in which amounts for different clients and different matters are pooled,
- a sum of money in relation to interest earnt interest will be payable (subject to any applicable withholding tax) on amounts held in general client bank accounts on the following basis:
- interest will be calculated daily on the balance held for each individual matter, and compounded on a six monthly basis;
- on amounts below £1m for any individual client on any individual matter, interest will be based on the rate of interest payable by the bank on the relevant amount, if it were to be held separately in our instant access general client account
- on amounts of £1m and above interest will be paid at the rate obtained by the firm when placing excess client account funds on the overnight money market with the bank at which the funds are held, unless the interest rate obtainable is such that the firm decides not to place any funds, in which case interest will be calculated as above,
In normal circumstances, if the total amount of interest calculated over the course of a transaction is less than £75, no interest will be paid. For any interest on any single matter for any one client in excess of £75 we reserve the right to charge and administration fee of no more than £75.
Client monies will normally be held in an instant access bank account to facilitate transactions, however if specific instructions are received from the client requesting that funds be placed on a term deposit, interest earned on such term deposits shall be paid to the client in full
If client monies are held in a separate designated deposit account (i.e. a specific bank account, for a specific matter) all interest earned on that account will be credited to that bank account and paid to the client in full (subject to any applicable withholding tax).