The three routes by which a firm may handle client money outside a client account, and the distinct compliance rules attaching to each.
Not every penny a firm handles ends up in a client account, and the Accounts Rules say exactly when and how it may go elsewhere. This chapter starts with the default position and the three permitted alternatives, looking first at joint accounts — whether the money remains client money and the two compliance requirements that follow. It then examines a client's own account operated by the solicitor as signatory, with its three specific obligations, before turning to Third Party Managed Accounts and the information a client must receive before one is used. It closes by contrasting the regulatory protection of a standard client account with that of a TPMA — a distinction that matters when things go wrong.
