Compliance Is Becoming a Product Feature, Not a Policy Binder: How 2026's Wave of State Trust-Accounting Mandates Is Quietly Rewriting How Law Firms Buy Software

Twelve states made three-way IOLTA reconciliation mandatory. California layered on designated-licensee and CTAPP requirements. The pattern across 2026 is unmistakable: trust compliance is moving from a written policy you promise to follow into a system capability you can prove. That changes what 'good software' even means.