An escrow account is a temporary account held by a third person — an escrow agent — during the process of a purchase transaction between two parties. As this is a temporary account, it operates only until the conditions agreed between the two parties — usually a buyer and a seller — are settled, allowing the transaction to be completed.

An escrow account can be created to hold funds, securities, money or other assets. While the most common application of escrow accounts is for real estate transactions, they can have various other purposes. For example, they can be used during a mortgage transaction between the lender and the borrower. Typically, a lender might require the borrower to make regular deposits into the escrow account. The deposited funds are then used to pay for an insurance policy or real estate tax.

Escrow accounts are growing in popularity in the business world as well. Opening this kind of account during a business transaction can be a substitute for a letter of credit. In this case, the bank or other escrow agent receives money from the buyer and notifies the other party that the payment has been made. The seller company can now be confident that they will receive the funds as soon as they fulfil their legal obligations, and therefore they send the goods to the buyer. When the buyer company receives the goods and is satisfied with the quality of the products, they send confirmation to the bank with an instruction to release the funds.

Another application of an escrow account for businesses is the transfer of company shares to employees as part of their remuneration package. This way, the employees become the shareholders of the company, but during the escrow period they have limited ability to use or sell the shares. The reason for such a policy is to protect the market price of the company’s stock and to discourage the employees from leaving the company, at least until the escrow period is over.

Opening an escrow account can resolve most of the uncertainties related to the safe and honest delivery of funds or other assets as part of a purchase agreement. For example, if a buyer wants to inspect the real estate he or she is interested in, or perform any other due diligence, an escrow account can be used to confirm that the buyer has enough funds to actually complete the transaction. If the buyer is satisfied with the real estate, he or she instructs the third party to release the funds from the escrow account. In this way, the buyer can be sure that the money is safe until he or she is ready to finish the deal, and the seller can be certain that the buyer has enough funds and is genuinely interested in the property.

Advantages of using an escrow account
An escrow account is advantageous to both parties in the transaction. As discussed above, the involvement of a third party who temporarily holds the money while some aspects of the agreement remain unfulfilled can facilitate the real estate or business transaction, especially if one or both of the parties lack confidence in the other.

Nevertheless, it is crucial for both the buyer and the seller to be confident in the escrow agent, as during a certain period of time he or she is the only one who has access to the funds. Therefore, it is very important to choose a trustworthy agent with a good reputation.