How to introduce the US subsidiary of a foreign-headquartered client

Why is the parent relationship the usual way in?

Most advisers outside the US meet American companies through their parents. You audit the group, prepare its consolidated reporting, advise on transfer pricing or treasury, act as outside counsel or relationship banker, or sit on the parent's board. The US subsidiary shows up in your world as a line in the legal entity chart, a budget pack each autumn and a US president who dials into group calls from Chicago or Atlanta.

That subsidiary is the company you would introduce. SourceX works only with US companies, and the US entity is the one that employs the people, runs the systems and created the records a license would cover. Your relationship with the parent is the route; the decision sits wherever the group's governance puts it.

What should you map before mentioning anything?

Five facts decide whether the introduction is worth making and who should hear about it first. Ordinary group work often tells you most of them; if a fact reached you under engagement confidentiality, ask before using it.

Ownership of records often follows employment. Under US copyright law, the employer is treated as the author of a work made for hire, such as material an employee prepares within the scope of the job, and owns the rights unless the parties have agreed otherwise in a signed writing, as 17 U.S.C. 201 provides. In a group, that employer is usually the US entity running the payroll, but intercompany agreements can assign or license IP to the parent, and material created by parent staff may belong to the parent. SourceX's rights review works through this with the company; your part is to mention that an intercompany agreement exists.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

Hold, Decide, Inform: a three-question sponsor test

The authorized sponsor is whoever can commit the US company to exploring a license: an owner, CEO, CFO or other authorized representative. Inside a group, three questions find that person and the people around them.

• Hold: which entity holds the records and the rights to them, the US subsidiary or the parent?
• Decide: who can approve a licensing conversation, the US president or CFO acting within the delegation-of-authority matrix, or a group executive such as the group CFO, a division head or the general counsel?
• Inform: who must be told even without a vote, such as group data protection, group IT security or group legal?

If Hold points to the parent, stop, because the parent is not a US company. If Decide points to a group executive, raise it with that person first and let them nominate the US sponsor. If the Inform list is long, the group's own approvals will take time, which is normal and not a reason to go around them.

When should you raise it in the group calendar?

If your firm audits the group or the US subsidiary, check your independence and professional rules on referral fees before any of these conversations.

What about personal data that crosses borders?

A US subsidiary's records often include people outside the US: group colleagues copied on email, EU customers in the CRM, shared channels with the parent's teams. The General Data Protection Regulation can apply to organizations outside the EU that offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, people in the EU, so records like these can raise GDPR questions even when the licensor is a US company.

That is one reason group data protection belongs on the Inform list. De-identification and redaction requirements are agreed with the company before any work begins, and data is delivered only after an executed agreement and the company's authorization.

How does the introduction work?

1. Raise the idea with your group contact, usually the group CFO or general counsel, and agree who at the US subsidiary should hear about it.
2. Register as a partner and send the US sponsor your referral link, which opens sourcex.si/apply with your code attached, or submit the company through the referral form.
3. SourceX qualifies the US entity on size, history, breadth of records and rights; any group approvals are for the company to obtain.
4. The US team completes a data inventory of its systems, years of history and export options.
5. Price and terms are agreed with the US company, and nothing is binding until it signs.
6. AI labs and data buyers review; the deal closes, data is delivered under the agreed redaction rules and the company is paid.
7. SourceX pays your reward once its own fee has been received.

What fit information should you give?

Enough for SourceX to judge whether a qualification call is worthwhile, and nothing more.

What to say: two short scripts

To the group CFO:

To the US president, once the group has agreed:

The introduction email builder drafts a tailored version of either message.

How do rewards and tax forms work for the adviser?

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 cumulative per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed. The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the US subsidiary receives, and the program terms set out the details.

Advisers outside the US can check which tax form fits in the W-8BEN vs W-8BEN-E comparison. If any of your introduction work takes place on a US visit, read the explainer on 30% US withholding and non-US referral rewards, because where the work happens can matter. Check your own professional body's rules on referral fees and client disclosure as well.

When should you stop?

• The US entity is a liaison or sales office without a workforce of its own.
• The records were created and are held by the parent rather than the US business.
• Group policy forbids licensing data externally and nobody will revisit it.
• The US business is being sold and the buyer has not been told.
• Its records are already under an AI-training license elsewhere.

Next step

Map the US entity this week using the table above. If it holds up, register as a partner and agree the route with your group contact. Deal advisers can read the page for cross-border M&A advisors with US clients, and investors can read the page for international private equity firms with US portfolio companies.