Nairobi, Sept. 8 -- The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) plans to mop up idle financial assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients, a move likely to stir a standoff over the estimated billions of shillings in unclaimed cash.

Proposals by the UFAA, seen by the Business Daily, seek to declare any assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients for more than five years as unclaimed and surrender them to the State.

Lawyers act as custodians of deposits made in commercial transactions, sums involved in ongoing litigation, settlement payments and, in some instances, money held on behalf of clients in escrow accounts awaiting instructions.

"Assets held by advocates in the advocate's client account which belong to a client ...