TAF, as it is referred to sometimes, is the Trust Administration Fee in British Columbia.  You may have come across the acronym TAF on an invoice from your lawyer’s office if they were helping you with a real estate transaction, or in the dispersal of funds from an estate matter.  But what is TAF?

The Trust Administration Fee is a $15.00 (plus GST) fee that a lawyer is required to collect when placing client funds into a trust account, which is normally a pooled trust account with funds from multiple clients.  This fee is remitted to the Law Society of British Columbia and is used to fund the Law Society’s Trust Assurance Program.

The Trust Assurance Program is designed to support 4 main goals:

1. Compliance with trust accounting standards,
2. Deterrence to the mishandling of trust funds and trust accounts,
3. Detection of serious breaches in handling trust funds and trust accounts, and
4. Credibility with the public in how trust funds and accounts are managed.

When law firms are entrusted with client funds, this money is held in trust by that organization in a designated trust account within a financial institution.  The Trust Assurance Program is tasked with trying to ensure that specific procedures, standards, and processes are followed by the holder of those funds so that the client can have confidence that their money is being appropriately handled.

Every year lawyers and law firms that hold trust accounts must report to the Law Society of British Columbia on their management of their trust accounts and the trust funds they are holding.  Additionally, the Law Society conducts compliance audits of trust account holders periodically, to help ensure the Trust Assurance Program is being implemented as it should.  The Trust Assurance Program also provides educational and support tools to help practitioners do the best job possible in being stewards of their clients trust funds. 

Holding client funds in trust is a core responsibility of lawyers and law firms in British Columbia; the Trust Assurance Program is here to ensure that responsibility is managed to as high a standard as possible.  This helps provide the public with some comfort that when they deliver their lawyer a $500,000.00 bank draft, those funds will be appropriately managed and that the receiving body is regulated with respect to same.

This information is general in nature only. You should consult a lawyer before acting on any of this information. This information should not be considered as legal advice. To learn more about your legal needs, please contact our office at (250)448-2637 or any of our lawyers practicing in the area of corporate law at the following:

Una Kuzio: una@touchstone.law