Should a referral fee be paid to you personally or to your firm?

The short answer: follow the policy that already governs your outside income

Most professionals already have a rule about outside fees, written into an employment agreement, a partnership agreement, an LLC operating agreement or a compliance manual. Whatever that document says about fees earned through client relationships should decide whether a SourceX referral reward goes to you, your own entity or your firm. If nothing covers it, agree the answer in writing with your firm before anyone registers, because the tax paperwork and the payment will follow the payee you register.

The question is sharpest for three groups: PE operating partners and deal professionals whose employment terms may route portfolio-related fees to the manager or the fund; CPAs whose partnership agreements may treat fees earned through firm clients as firm revenue; and boutique bankers whose firms require outside compensation to be cleared with compliance.

Three questions that decide the payee

Call it the policy, person, paperwork test.

1. Policy: does an agreement or manual you are bound by say who keeps fees from client introductions? If yes, follow it.
2. Person: whose relationship is it in substance? An introduction made through firm work, on firm time and with firm client knowledge is more likely to be treated as the firm's; one from your personal network may not be.
3. Paperwork: can the payee you choose supply the right tax form, sign the partner agreement and receive payment into its own account?

Payee decision table

Tax paperwork follows the payee

The payee you register decides which tax form you provide and which information return, if any, you receive.

• US individuals and US entities give a Form W-9, which supplies a correct taxpayer identification number to a payer that must file an information return.
• Non-US individuals give a Form W-8BEN to the payer when asked, and non-US entities give a Form W-8BEN-E. Neither form goes to the IRS.
• Information returns for nonemployee compensation are covered by the Form 1099-NEC instructions, which apply to payments for services made to an individual, a partnership, an estate or in some cases a corporation, above a threshold that depends on the year of payment. Whether a form is issued can therefore depend on whether you register personally or through an entity.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm the right payee and form with your tax adviser before you register.

Registered representatives: compliance decides first

If you hold a FINRA registration, your broker-dealer's policies sit on top of everything above, including any policy on whether outside compensation may be paid to you, to an entity you own or to the firm. FINRA's outside-activity rules are also in transition: its September 2026 update reports SEC approval of Rule 3290, which will replace Rules 3270 and 3280 from an effective date FINRA has said it will announce in a Regulatory Notice. Industry commentary such as this note on the M&A broker exemption adds that registered individuals remain subject to FINRA rules and their firm's policies even where a statutory exemption applies. Take the payee question to your compliance department before you register or introduce anyone.

How to stop two colleagues registering the same company

SourceX credits the first valid referrer whose introduction results in a verified company application inside the attribution window. Within a firm, that can become an awkward race when two partners know the same CEO.

1. Agree who registers: the firm as a single partner, or named individuals with a clear allocation of relationships.
2. Keep one shared list of companies already introduced, with dates.
3. Check that list before any introduction email goes out.
4. Record the internal allocation in your own firm documents, not in the introduction.

Internal splits are a firm matter

Plan on a single registered payee and handle any division among the deal team, origination credit or bonus pool inside the firm. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, which can be long after the introduction; the guide to referral agreement tail provisions covers what happens if people change firms in the meantime.

The program terms govern the rest, and the page on how to get paid for referrals explains the payment mechanics. Changing the payee does not change the client conversation: the owner should still hear about the arrangement first, as set out in do you have to disclose a referral fee. M&A advisors who also earn a success fee from the same client can see how the two stay separate in the success fee vs referral fee comparison.

Next step

Settle the payee with your firm, then register as a partner under that name. Once the owner agrees, draft the note with the introduction email builder and use the referral link issued to the payee you registered; how SourceX referrals work shows each stage after that.