Which place’s debt rules apply—and who can help?

S_ID PASS-04 — Idaho customer funds and trust accounts

Actual fresh public-source access date: October 25, 2026, Pacific time, America/Los_Angeles.

Review character: Same-coordinator bounded Idaho component, not independent review.

Preservation rule: All P1/P2/P3 raw findings, source tables, claims, fee formulas, refund analysis, and seven worked examples remain preserved. This pass does not reopen C033 or C035, rerun provider-access or fee ceilings, query a named provider, or complete the broader contracts, bonds, remedies, collection, litigation, limitations, garnishment, secured-debt, sector, local, or tribal work.

Current-source limitation

The Idaho Department of Finance’s current statutes page identifies §§ 26-2233 and 26-2234 as operative ICAA provisions and links to the Legislature. One bounded fresh attempt to each official section route failed with an internal-access error. Accordingly, the substantive Idaho statutory findings below are based on complete 2025 secondary reproductions, supported where available by official agency forms, historical enforcement materials, and official rule-status records. They are not relabeled as authenticated official 2026 section text, and no absence of a 2026 amendment is inferred from the failed routes. C035 remains open for these additional sections. Department of Finance+1

A. Substantive findings

1. Which models Idaho’s account and funds provisions reach

1.1 Section 26-2233 uses an actual-custody trigger

The accessible text of § 26-2233(1) applies to every ICAA licensee that receives or holds money belonging to another in connection with ICAA-authorized business. Such a licensee must establish the required trust account. The trigger is therefore actual receipt or holding of another person’s funds, not the provider’s label. [S_ID-P4-C002; S_ID-P4-S004 §26-2233(1)]

The provision conditionally reaches:

• A collection agency receiving debtor payments that are due to creditor clients.
• A debt counselor or credit counselor receiving debtor money for payment or proration to creditors.
• A debt-settlement provider that falls within the debt-counselor classification and itself receives or holds customer money.
• A credit-repair organization only when, in addition to satisfying the still-conditional P2 classification, it receives or holds money belonging to another rather than merely receiving a fully earned fee belonging to the provider.
• Any other licensed ICAA model whose actual money flow satisfies the receipt-or-holding condition.

A genuinely noncustodial provider that receives only its own properly earned business revenue and never receives or holds consumer or creditor money is not shown, on those stipulated facts, to trigger § 26-2233(1). It remains subject to § 26-2233(2)’s separate business-account rule if it is an ICAA licensee. Justia Law+1

This model mapping remains conditional on P1/P2’s classification findings. The official current text of the relevant actor definitions is still unresolved under C035, and no named entity is approved.

1.2 The provisions do not all have the same actor scope

1.3 Exact exemptions still matter

If a person falls within an exact § 26-2239 exemption and acts only within the exempt capacity, the ICAA provisions do not apply by their own terms. Relevant examples include authorized banks, trust companies, credit unions, authorized escrow businesses acting in that business, regulated lenders and their affiliates or agents acting within the statutory limits, and attorneys whose covered activity is incidental to an Idaho legal practice rather than a separate covered business.

That does not establish that the person may hold money free of all regulation. Banking, escrow, attorney-trust, money-transmission, bankruptcy, or other regimes may separately govern the account. No such alternative regime was investigated here. [S_ID-P4-C016; S_ID-P4-S010 §26-2239] Justia Law

2. Idaho account structure, records, remittance, and movement of funds

2.1 Account title, institution, and segregation

Under the accessible § 26-2233 text, a custodial licensee must:

1. Establish the trust account in the licensee’s own name.
2. Keep it as a separate trust account for deposit and remittance of money belonging to another.
3. Use a financial institution whose deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
4. Maintain a separate business account for the licensee’s own business funds and money.
5. Refrain from directly or indirectly misappropriating, misapplying, or borrowing trust money.

[S_ID-P4-C003–C005; S_ID-P4-S004 §26-2233(1)–(2)] Justia Law

This creates at least a two-account structure:

• Trust account: another person’s money.
• Business account: money belonging or due to the provider.

The phrase “in its own name” addresses the account’s required title or caption. It does not convert the underlying trust money into the provider’s property; the same sentence describes it as money belonging to another. Conversely, the statute does not say the account must be titled in the individual consumer’s name.

2.2 What the text does not establish

The provisions actually read do not expressly establish:

• That the financial institution must be located in Idaho.
• A separate bank account for each debtor or creditor.
• Whether multiple customers’ trust money may be pooled subject to subledger accounting.
• An express interest-allocation rule for an Idaho provider-titled trust account.
• A bank setoff waiver.
• Bankruptcy-estate exclusion or priority.
• Protection against garnishment or attachment.
• A perfected security interest.
• A transaction-level signatory or dual-signature requirement.
• Who may initiate an ACH debit or creditor payment.
• A general consumer right to withdraw any selected amount from the bank account on demand.
• A statutory fee for an independent account administrator.

Those issues remain unresolved rather than being inferred from the words “trust account.” [S_ID-P4-C015, C026–C027]

2.3 Recordkeeping and regulator access

The accessible § 26-2234 text gives the director access during normal business hours to offices, books, creditor accounts, trust accounts, business accounts, records, files, safes, and vaults used in ICAA operations. Investigations may occur inside or outside Idaho. Every licensee must maintain books and financial records under generally accepted accounting principles in a form sufficient for the director to determine compliance. [S_ID-P4-C007–C008; S_ID-P4-S005 §26-2234(1), (2), (6)] Justia Law

A collection agency has additional obligations:

• Written acknowledgment of each account received for collection.
• A record of each such account.
• A permanent record of sums collected and all disbursements.
• Preservation of records concerning accounts, receipts, money collected, and the disposal or disbursement of creditor funds for three years after final disposition.
• No intentional false entry, necessary-entry omission, concealment, destruction, or improper disposal before the retention period ends.

[S_ID-P4-C009; S_ID-P4-S005 §26-2234(4)] Justia Law

An official 2017 multistate settlement involving iQor required complete and accurate trust-account records, regular reconciliation of each trust account, timely clearing of reconciliation adjustments, monitoring of outstanding trust checks, and regulator access. That agreement is useful evidence of historical enforcement expectations, but it was negotiated, involved no admission, and is not a generally binding Idaho judicial interpretation. [S_ID-P4-C019; S_ID-P4-S018 printed pp. 4, 8–9] Department of Finance+2

2.4 Remittance timing

Collection agency creditor funds

Every collection agency licensee must, within 30 days after the end of each calendar month:

• Remit to creditor clients all money due from collections made during that month.
• Provide each creditor client a written statement of money collected and payments made.

This is a calendar-month settlement rule, not “30 days after each individual payment.” [S_ID-P4-C010; S_ID-P4-S005 §26-2234(5)] Justia Law

Debt counselor, credit counselor, and debt-settlement funds

No parallel, exact Idaho remittance deadline for a custodial debt counselor or debt-settlement provider was located in §§ 26-2233 and 26-2234. Section 26-2233 identifies the account’s deposit-and-remittance purpose, but does not state a number of days for disbursing debtor money to a creditor or returning it upon ordinary termination.

The 30-day collection-agency rule should therefore not be silently imported into a debtor-side settlement model. Contract terms, other state provisions, an order, and—when independently applicable—the federal TSR may supply additional timing. [S_ID-P4-C010, C023]

2.5 Deduction or transfer of provider compensation

A provider may not turn trust money into business money merely by labeling a debit a “fee.” Before transfer to the business account, compensation must be independently:

• Permitted under the applicable Idaho fee provision.
• Authorized by the governing agreement where required.
• Actually earned under the relevant service-performance rule.
• Timely under any independently applicable federal rule.
• Properly allocated to the debt or service involved.
• Supported by the trust ledger and business records.

The P1 fee ceilings are ceilings, not fee-earning events, and remain unchanged.

For collection agencies, the accessible § 26-2229 text permits only regular collection fees or commissions authorized under the Act and the written creditor-client contract, with its own percentage restrictions. That collection-agency rule is not a debtor-side debt-settlement fee rule. [S_ID-P4-C013; S_ID-P4-S007 §26-2229(1)–(2)] Justia Law

Section 26-2229A(7) separately prohibits a licensed or required person from misappropriating, transferring, or converting to its own use money belonging to or held for another. Section 26-2238’s accessible text exposes failure to maintain the required trust account, failure to disburse as required, or conversion-type conduct to criminal consequences upon conviction. This pass does not perform a full criminal-elements or remedies analysis. [S_ID-P4-C005, C012; S_ID-P4-S008 §26-2229A(7); S_ID-P4-S009 §26-2238(1)] Justia Law+1

2.6 Payment-processing and administrator charges

Section 26-2229A(4)(f) supplies a narrow collection-agency rule for a charge reasonably related to the actual cost of processing a demand draft or other electronic debt payment, provided:

• The debtor preauthorized the payment method.
• The debtor received advance notice of a reasonable alternative method that would not generate an additional charge.

It does not establish:

• A general dedicated-account administrator fee.
• A percentage-of-balance administration charge.
• A right to debit a trust account.
• A debt-settlement provider’s fee.
• That the administrator is unlicensed or exempt.
• That any amount above actual processing cost is permissible.

[S_ID-P4-C014; S_ID-P4-S008 §26-2229A(4)(f)] Justia Law

3. Affiliate receipt, independent administrators, and account control

3.1 Provider-maintained accounts

An official 2010 consent order concerning Christian Debt Consolidation described a debt-settlement provider that electronically debited customers and deposited the money into a trust account maintained by the provider, from which the provider also deducted fees. The order required an accounting and later return of specified fees and unapplied trust money.

That is useful fact-specific evidence that a provider-maintained settlement account was treated as provider custody; it is not a current general ruling on every account architecture. [S_ID-P4-C018; S_ID-P4-S017 printed pp. 2, 6] Department of Finance+1

3.2 Genuinely independent third-party account

Under a stipulated arrangement in which:

• The customer owns the account.
• An independent financial institution or administrator holds the money.
• The provider cannot initiate transfers, freeze the account, change recipients, or direct disbursements except through customer-authorized settlement instructions.
• The provider and administrator have no ownership, control, affiliation, or referral compensation.
• The provider never receives or holds the funds.

Section 26-2233(1) is not shown to be triggered for the provider solely by the existence of that external account. But no reviewed Idaho primary source establishes a categorical independent-account safe harbor.

The administrator may itself require analysis under the debt-counselor payment/proration branch or another Idaho financial-services regime if it receives, holds, or disburses customer money. That classification remains unresolved because:

• The controlling actor definitions remain subject to C035.
• No Idaho order or controlling case deciding this precise administrator model was located.
• The Idaho money-transmission and banking statutes were outside this pass.
• The actual account and servicing contracts were not supplied.

[S_ID-P4-C022, C025, C027]

3.3 Affiliate or controlled administrator

Routing money through an affiliate does not automatically show that the provider has avoided receipt, holding, or control. The state analysis requires the actual facts, including who can direct, debit, freeze, sweep, pledge, or redirect the money.

Where the federal TSR dedicated-account provision applies, the result is clearer: the administering entity may not be owned or controlled by, or affiliated in any way with, the debt-relief service. An affiliate-administered account therefore fails that federal condition even if the account’s marketing materials call it “independent.” [S_ID-P4-C022, C024, C026; S_ID-P4-S021 §310.4(a)(5)(ii)(C)] eCFR

3.4 Facts required to classify a concrete account

A concrete arrangement cannot be resolved from a product name or bank-logo screenshot. At minimum, the following evidence is required:

[S_ID-P4-C027]

4. Cancellation, termination, and closure of held money

4.1 Ordinary debtor cancellation

P1’s reviewed cancellation-refund formula remains unchanged. This pass did not find a separate Idaho rule in §§ 26-2233 or 26-2234 prescribing a general number of days in which every custodial debt-settlement provider must return ordinary uncommitted trust money after cancellation.

The Christian order’s requirement to refund specified money within 10 days after the Department received an accounting was a respondent-specific remedial term. It is not converted into a generally applicable ten-day Idaho rule. [S_ID-P4-C018; S_ID-P4-S017 printed p. 6] Department of Finance

4.2 Collection-agency closure

The accessible § 26-2246 text requires a closing collection agency, within 30 days after closure or discontinuance, to furnish proof that:

• All money collected for and due to creditor clients has been remitted.
• Collection accounts and judgments have been returned or assigned to the proper parties.
• Client or third-party papers and property have been returned.

If the agency does not complete those requirements, the director may demand possession of business records, bank accounts—including creditor-client trust accounts—third-party property, and assets, and may liquidate the business and return money and accounts. Liquidation expenses may be paid from controlled funds only to the extent those funds exceed sums due creditor clients or other proper parties. [S_ID-P4-C021; S_ID-P4-S012 §26-2246(1), (3), (5)] Justia Law+1

This creates a closure-specific protection for creditor-client money. It does not establish Bankruptcy Code treatment, bank setoff priority, or a general insolvency rule for debt-settlement customer accounts.

4.3 Property right in assigned collection accounts

Section 26-2243’s accessible text gives a collection agency a property right in an account assigned for collection. Reading that provision with the trust and remittance sections, the better bounded interpretation is that the assigned-account property right does not itself make creditor-client proceeds the collection agency’s business funds. This is an inference from the statutory provisions, not a bankruptcy holding. [S_ID-P4-C029; S_ID-P4-S011 §26-2243; S004–S005]

5. Idaho accounts versus the federal TSR dedicated-account option

The federal provision was freshly checked for this pass. The eCFR page states that Title 16 was current through October 22, 2026 and last amended October 19, 2026; eCFR describes itself as authoritative but unofficial. eCFR

Where the TSR debt-relief rule independently applies, money may be accumulated in a dedicated account only if:

• The account is at an insured financial institution.
• The customer owns the funds and receives any accrued interest.
• The administrator is not owned or controlled by, and is not affiliated in any way with, the debt-relief service.
• The administrator and debt-relief service do not give or accept compensation for referrals involving the service.
• The customer may withdraw from the debt-relief service at any time without penalty.
• Within seven business days after the customer’s request, the customer receives all account funds other than provider fees already earned in compliance with the TSR’s settlement, first-payment, and allocation conditions.

[S_ID-P4-C022–C024; S_ID-P4-S021 §310.4(a)(5)(ii)(A)–(E)] eCFR

5.1 The two structures are not interchangeable

A provider-operated Idaho trust account is therefore not automatically a compliant federal dedicated account. Conversely, a federally compliant independent dedicated account does not automatically resolve the administrator’s Idaho classification, Idaho money-transmission treatment, or any state account-administration fee. [S_ID-P4-C024–C026]

The federal rule’s object is withdrawal from the service, not an unconditional federal right to close or make arbitrary withdrawals from the bank account itself. That distinction is preserved exactly. [S_ID-P4-C023]

B. Conduct and account-model matrix

C. Source and usage table

All fresh accesses in this table occurred on October 25, 2026, Pacific time, unless expressly labeled reused or historical.

D. Claim table

E. Bounded money-ledger examples

All examples use exact dollar-and-cent arithmetic. No Idaho rounding rule was located, and no rounding is required by the chosen inputs. These examples demonstrate account treatment only; they do not establish any real provider’s license, contract, fee entitlement, or factual account structure.

Example 1 — Collection agency receipt, commission, and creditor remittance

Conditions assumed

• Covered collection agency.
• Written creditor contract.
• $1,000.00 collected during August.
• Contract authorizes a 20% commission.
• Commission is already earned and lawfully retainable.
• No other deduction.

Ledger

Plain text

Trust receipt from debtor                         +$1,000.00
Authorized earned commission:
  $1,000.00 × 20%                                  -$200.00
Amount due creditor client                         $800.00
Business-account transfer                          $200.00
Creditor remittance                                $800.00
Ending trust balance                                 $0.00

The $800.00 and written monthly statement must be provided within 30 days after August 31—September 30 in this example. The arithmetic does not independently prove the commission was earned; that is an explicit input. [C010, C013]

Example 2 — Custodial debt counselor with no proven earned fee

Conditions assumed

• Covered custodial debt counselor.
• $500.00 received for creditor payments.
• $400.00 is currently authorized for a creditor payment.
• The provider asserts a $50.00 fee but supplies no evidence that it is earned or presently payable.
• No exact Idaho debtor-side remittance deadline is assumed.

Ledger

Plain text

Trust receipt                                      +$500.00
Authorized creditor payment                        -$400.00
Proven earned provider fee                            $0.00
Unproven proposed fee transfer                        $0.00
Ending trust balance                               $100.00

The $100.00 remains trust money until a lawful creditor disbursement, consumer return, or independently established earned-fee transfer occurs. A numerical fee ceiling would not change the result because mathematical eligibility is not legal earning. [C002–C005, C013]

Conditional branch

Only if separate evidence establishes that $40.00 is already earned, timely, contractually authorized, and lawfully payable:

Plain text

Balance before fee transfer                        $100.00
Lawfully payable fee transfer                      -$40.00
Remaining trust balance                             $60.00
Business-account receipt                            $40.00

No prior remittance is subtracted twice.

Example 3 — Covered federal dedicated account after service withdrawal

Conditions assumed

• The TSR applies.
• The account satisfies every § 310.4(a)(5)(ii) condition.
• Consumer-owned insured account originally held $1,200.00.
• $700.00 was already paid to a creditor under authorized settlement instructions.
• No provider fee has been proven earned under § 310.4(a)(5)(i).
• Customer withdraws from the debt-relief service.

Ledger

Plain text

Original consumer-owned account balance          $1,200.00
Prior authorized creditor payment                  -$700.00
Balance at withdrawal request                       $500.00
Earned provider fee                                   $0.00
Amount returnable to customer                       $500.00

The $500.00 must be returned within seven business days of the request. The example concerns withdrawal from the service, not a generalized bank-account withdrawal right. [C022–C023]

Example 4 — Affiliate-controlled “external” account

Conditions assumed

• Account contains $900.00.
• The administrator is a provider subsidiary.
• The provider can initiate debits.
• A proposed $25.00 “administration fee” has no identified Idaho or contractual authority and is not proven earned.

Compliance ledger

Plain text

Starting customer funds                            $900.00
Lawfully established administration fee              $0.00
Permitted provider transfer                           $0.00
Protected/undistributed balance                    $900.00

If the bank statement instead shows $875.00, the missing $25.00 is an unverified outflow, not a lawful fee merely because it was deducted. The affiliation defeats the TSR’s independent-administrator condition where the TSR applies. Idaho classification still requires the actual account and control documents. [C017, C022, C026–C027]

Example 5 — Collection-agency closure

Conditions assumed

• Trust balance: $4,500.00.
• $3,000.00 due creditor A.
• $1,500.00 due creditor B.
• Separate business account contains $500.00 of already earned business funds.
• Estimated liquidation expense: $100.00.

Ledger

Plain text

Trust balance                                    $4,500.00
Remit creditor A                                 -$3,000.00
Remit creditor B                                 -$1,500.00
Ending trust balance                                  $0.00

Separate business-account funds                    $500.00
Liquidation expense                                -$100.00
Remaining business funds                           $400.00

The $100.00 liquidation cost is not taken from the $4,500.00 due creditor clients. Section 26-2246 permits liquidation expenses from controlled funds only to the extent those funds exceed sums due creditor clients or other proper parties. [C021]

F. Component coverage and remaining gaps

G. Researcher self-check

Freshly read in PASS-04

• IDOF’s current statutes-and-rules index and the ICAA links to §§ 26-2233 and 26-2234.
• Complete accessible 2025 reproductions of §§ 26-2233 and 26-2234.
• Relevant complete or selected funds provisions in §§ 26-2222, 26-2229, 26-2229A, 26-2238, 26-2239, 26-2243, 26-2246, and 67-5247.
• The current eCFR text of 16 C.F.R. § 310.4(a)(5)(i)–(ii), including the page’s October 22, 2026 current-through statement.
• The official IDAPA cumulative index entry recording expiration of IDAPA 12.01.11.
• The archived IDAPA chapter.
• The relevant page of IDOF’s Fall 2006 newsletter.
• Selected material pages of the Christian consent order and iQor settlement agreement.
• The complete Bannock Collections press release.
• Selected portions of Dun & Bradstreet v. McEldowney sufficient to determine that it did not decide the trust-account mechanics at issue.

PDF evidence relied upon for substantive propositions was visually inspected, not merely identified by title.

Failed public routes

• https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2233
• https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title26/T26CH22/SECT26-2234

Each received one bounded fresh attempt. Neither produced readable official text. These are distinct P4 access observations and do not overwrite or merge the earlier S030 failures.

Reused without false fresh-read claims

• P1/P2’s classification and fee findings.
• P1’s cancellation-refund method and fee-earning limitations.
• P2’s definition qualifications.
• P3’s C033 and C035 source-status records.
• Earlier federal coverage context outside the freshly read § 310.4 account provision.
• Earlier Wall findings; Wall was not needed for a new funds proposition and was not rerun.

Not established

• An authenticated official 2026 version of the Idaho account provisions.
• A complete 2026 amendment comparison.
• A current generally applicable Idaho rule specifying reconciliation frequency.
• A categorical Idaho safe harbor for independent account administrators.
• A lawful Idaho administrator-fee amount.
• An Idaho rule on per-customer subaccounts, account interest, bank setoff, insolvency, bankruptcy ownership, attachment, or garnishment.
• A money-transmitter exemption.
• A particular provider’s, administrator’s, affiliate’s, or bank’s authorization.
• Any private account agreement, ACH authorization, servicing contract, bank ledger, or customer record.
• Whole-component, Idaho, A066, parent-state, operational, or publication acceptance.

No application, regulator contact, named-provider search, purchase, account change, private-data access, browser-control request, or separate chat was used.

END S_ID PASS-04.