Solicitor Nominated Trust account

If you’re an eligible lawyer or conveyancer, you can use this account to receive and hold your clients’ funds. This could include funds for property settlements, mergers, or legal cases.

Open an account

Features and benefits

No transactional fees

Unlike other bank accounts, the Solicitor Nominated Trust account has no transactional fees. Service fees such as same-day cleared payment and telegraphic payment fees apply.

Securely manage client funds

It’s a secure way to manage clients’ funds online. You can view account details and print, save or export transaction history and statements.

Meet legal obligations

It keeps your clients’ funds separate to meet legal obligations. We give 60% of the interest earned to the Lawyers and Conveyancers Special Fund as required by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 (the Act). We choose to donate half of the 40% we keep to Community Law.

Checking your eligibility

To be eligible to open a Solicitors Nominated Trust account, you’ll need to be a lawyer, conveyancing practitioner, incorporated law firm or conveyancing firm, required to hold trust accounts under the Act. You’ll also need to be listed on either the:

How to open an account

We’ll need to set up the Solicitor Nominated Trust account for you. If you’re a lawyer or conveyancer, you can get started by either:

Account opening criteria, BNZ standard terms and conditions, Internet Banking for Business terms and conditions, and current Disclosure Statement apply. Fees relating to other products and services may apply. Details of our fees can be found in our BNZ Business and Agribusiness Fee Guide (PDF 145KB). Fees are subject to change.

Money held in a Solicitor Nominated Trust account is covered under the Government’s Depositor Compensation Scheme. The scheme covers up to $100,000 of each client’s money in a Solicitor Nominated Trust account in the unlikely event of a failure.

Was this page helpful?