What exactly does a third-party account for lawyers entail? What are its advantages? Read on to find the answer to this and all your other questions about this specific account.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"What is a third-party account?"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"As the name suggests, a third-party account is a bank account that is separate from the accounts holding the assets of lawyers, notaries, bailiffs or real estate agents and is designed to manage third-party funds. This third-party account is used to settle transactions on behalf of clients or to temporarily secure amounts, for example in the event of a dispute. After all, as a lawyer, you need to be able to temporarily store funds from third parties, usually your client or opposing party, before disbursing them to the beneficial owner.
A third-party account has some special features. For example, the account may never show a debit balance, no credit may be granted on it and any mixing of a third-party account with other bank accounts is excluded. Moreover, as a lawyer, in certain cases you are only allowed to keep funds deposited in your third-party account for a maximum of two months and you must transfer unrecovered amounts to the Belgian Deposit and Consignment Office within two years of closing a case. For this reason, the account does not earn interest or any other returns.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"Why is this account essential for lawyers?"},{"componentType":"paragraph","title":"Personal versus professional assets","richBody":{"value":"As a lawyer, you are legally obliged to keep your personal assets and your professional assets strictly separate. Since 1 June 2014, every lawyer in Belgium is obliged to have their clients’ funds deposited in a third-party account with a financial institution recognised by the relevant Belgian Bar Association.
"}},{"componentType":"paragraph","title":"Legal protection","richBody":{"value":"All funds in a third-party account are protected by law. In other words, creditors of the holder of the third-party account cannot seize the funds. In addition, the funds in a third-party account cannot be reclaimed in case of bankruptcy of the holder of the third-party account. This way, the law guarantees that third-party funds always end up with the rightful beneficiary.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"A third-party account: other things you need to know"},{"componentType":"paragraph","title":"Audits","richBody":{"value":"Third-party accounts of lawyers are also systematically audited by the President of the Bar Association or the audit cell. All local bar associations are obliged to check a certain number of their members each year, as well as 2.5% of all third-party accounts. They check, among other things, whether the accounts are used correctly and thus try to prevent any misuse of third-party funds by lawyers. In addition, all account numbers of lawyers' third-party accounts are published on avocats.be to ensure transparency.
"}},{"componentType":"paragraph","title":"Mandatory reporting","richBody":{"value":"Even if you are not audited, as a lawyer you are obliged to report suspicious matters to your President of the Bar. At the beginning of each year, you must also report an overview of all your third-party accounts and the balance on those accounts on 31 December to the relevant Belgian Bar Association. This obligation also applies to trainee lawyers. Associations or groupings may, however, appoint one internal manager to report on their behalf.
"}},{"componentType":"paragraph","title":"No mandate account","richBody":{"value":"A third-party account is sometimes confused with a mandate account of debt mediators, curators or administrators. Yet they are two very different accounts. For transactions related to mandates, the use of a trust account is even forbidden.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"How do I open a third-party account?"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"As a lawyer, you need to open a third-party account with one of the financial institutions with which the Belgian Bar Association has signed an agreement, such as ING.
To open a third-party account with ING, you must first open a professional current account. You can easily do this online. Next, send your request to open a third-party account to Privalis Desk via desk.privalis@ing.com. Given the specific procedures, security standards and documentation involved in opening a third-party account, it’s not possible to do this online.
When opening a third-party account, you, as a lawyer, grant an irrevocable power of attorney to the President of the Bar Association where you are registered. With this the latter obtains full access and a copy of all transactions on your third-party account.
"}},{"componentType":"sectionTitle","title":"Tailor-made accounts and services for your legal profession?"},{"componentType":"paragraph","richBody":{"value":"Choose ING Privalis’ 20 years of experience and know-how.
"}}]}}}