account is a key management skill in the operation of a law office which is based on principles of double-entry bookkeeping, with certain additional safeguards designed to enhance the audit trail in the event a lawyer becomes unable or otherwise unwilling to cooperate with bar auditors or an inventory attorney to account for handling of client property. It is incumbent on the owner of a law firm to undertake adequate training for the responsibilities of managing an IOLTA client property trust account. Effective management of client property trust account is required for compliance with bar rules and the efficient and profitable operation of the law firm. States typically require MCLE (Minimum Continuing Legal Education) providers to be accredited by the state's court system. History IOLTA programs were first established in Australia and Canada in the late 1960s to generate funds for legal services to the poor and other charitable purposes. In the U.S., IOLTA programs are state-specific, and operate under their own rules and regulations. Most of the U.S. IOLTA programs have been created by Court Rule, while several have been established through state legislatures. In many states the IOLTA program is administered by the charitable arm of the state bar association, whereas some states have created other entities to operate the IOLTA program. IOLTA revenue has become a major source of funding for civil legal services in the United States. It is also, however, an unpredictable revenue stream because IOLTA income is entirely dependent on the current interest rate environment and economic conditions. Legality Explicitly, IOLTA applies only to funds that are "nominal in amount or held for a short period of time". So larger amounts of money held for single clients are exempt from the IOLTA program. That means, typically, that client funds eligible for IOLTA involve small amounts of money held for a long time, or significant amounts of money held for a short time. As was the case prior to IOLTA, lawyers must exercise their discretion in determining whether a given client’s trust deposit is of sufficient size or will be held for sufficient duration to justify the cost of being individually invested for a client. Since IOLTA’s inception, a number of court cases have arisen in which parties argued that IOLTA programs violated the Fifth Amendment by resulting in an unconstitutional taking. This argument was put to rest by the Supreme Court of the United