Can the firm earn from the supplemental services it offers clients?

Yes, in one way: a company the firm owns, with written disclosure and consent from each client.

Prepared for Mena, Maimone Legal November 2, 2026 A 3-minute read

A research summary by Bluprint, a non-lawyer vendor, from the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, its ethics opinions and the Florida Statutes. Not legal advice: you and your counsel are best placed to judge how it applies. It assumes you are a Florida Bar member (if you are admitted elsewhere, your home state's rules apply too).

Every citation is a link to its official source, opening at the exact page, so any line can be checked in one tap.

How sure we are: high on the core rules, which the Bar states plainly. Medium on a company run or co-owned by a firm's nonlawyer COO, which we found no Florida opinion addressing.

The short version

Six ways to set it up

Ordered from safest to riskiest. Tap any one to see why.

  1. Allowed

    The firm recommends providers, and no money changes hands

    No fee, so the referral-fee rules don't come into play. The firm also earns nothing.

    WhyClose
    • Each recommendation still has to be in the client's interest. Rule 4-1.7(a)(2)
    • A "we send you clients, you send us clients" deal could arguably count as giving something of value for a recommendation; we found no Florida opinion on it. Rule 4-7.17(b)
    • Recurring referrals from an insurance agent were found proper when there is no financial arrangement, with any doubt resolved against continuing. Opinion 72-6
  2. Allowed, with conditionsSafest way to earn

    The firm owns a real company that sells the service at a visible price

    Of the options here, the only one where the firm keeps what it earns. The steps are below.

    WhyClose

    The Bar's ethics committee (advisory) found no outright ban on referring clients to a genuine business the lawyer owns, as long as it is more than a way around the referral-fee rules. Opinion 02-8 The conditions:

    • Clients are told the firm owns it and benefits from it. Opinion 72-26, Opinion 73-1
    • Clients are told, preferably in writing, that these are not legal services and that attorney-client protections don't apply to them. Rule 4-5.7(d), Opinion 02-8
    • It is offered only when it is in the client's best interest. Opinion 02-8
    • It is never used as a feeder of legal cases to the firm. Opinion 02-8, Opinion 73-1
    • Each sale follows the business-transaction rule: fair and reasonable terms in writing, written advice to consider independent counsel, and the client's signed consent to the terms and the firm's role. Rule 4-1.8(a)
  3. Risky

    Your COO's agency earns from the providers, and the firm earns nothing

    Risky even if nothing flows back to the firm, and the firm earns nothing.

    WhyClose
    • The attorney must make reasonable efforts so the COO's conduct fits her own duties, and answers for conduct she orders or knowingly ratifies. Rule 4-5.3(b)
    • Sharing client details with the agency needs each client's informed consent. Rule 4-1.6(a)
    • In our reading, recommending providers who pay the firm's own COO is a personal interest that may call for each client's informed consent, confirmed in writing. Rule 4-1.7(a)(2)
    • If any value returns to the firm, the Bar can treat it as the firm doing through someone else what it can't do itself. Salary, shared costs or a profit share are our examples of how that could happen. Rule 4-8.4(a)
  4. Risky if the agency keeps itNot allowed if the firm keeps it

    Providers pay a flat fee to be listed on the page

    A listing fee is still money from a vendor your clients are pointed to.

    WhyClose
    • If the firm keeps it without passing the benefit to clients, it is in substance the fee the opinions don't allow. Opinion 60-26, Opinion 70-13, Opinion 02-8
    • If the agency keeps it, the risks of the row above apply.
    • For the insurance broker: the law bans paying an unlicensed person a referral fee that depends on a sale. A truly flat fee falls outside that wording, but confirm with the Florida Department of Financial Services before relying on it. Fla. Stat. 626.112(8)
  5. Risky

    A firm-owned company whose only income is provider commissions

    A company that sells nothing itself looks like a way around the referral-fee rule.

    WhyClose
    • The Bar's approval covers a bona fide business, not an attempt to get around the referral-fee rules. Opinion 02-8
    • For health insurance commissions it is not allowed unless the company is a licensed insurance agency. Fla. Stat. 626.753(2)
  6. Not allowed

    The firm takes a provider's commission and keeps it

    The opinions require the benefit of any such fee to go to the client.

    WhyClose
    • Taking the fee with full disclosure and the client's written consent, then crediting it to the client, is allowed, but then the firm earns nothing. Opinion 60-26, Opinion 70-13
    • These opinions involve fees for placing client investments; we apply them here by analogy. A per-policy payment from an insurer to a lawyer was condemned in 1967, later modified so the client receives the benefit. Opinion 67-25, Opinion 70-13
    • Health insurance is stricter: an agent may share commissions only with licensed agents or an agency, and the law requires revoking the license of anyone who violates or takes part in violating that. Fla. Stat. 626.753(1)(a), (2) and (4)

Off-limits in every structure

  • Sharing the firm's legal fees with the COO or the agency. Rule 4-5.4(a), Bar Ethics Alert
  • Bonuses to a nonlawyer employee based on the clients they bring in, or commissions tied to the fees from that business. Rule 4-5.4(a)(4), Opinion 89-4
  • Paying anyone to recommend the firm, beyond permitted advertising costs and referral-service fees. Rule 4-7.17(b)
  • Letting a nonlawyer pay any part of the firm's advertising. Rule 4-7.17(c)

How the firm-owned company works

The safest way to earn, start to finish.

  1. The firm, or you, owns a separate company

    A genuine business with its own name, run apart from the firm's legal work. Opinion 02-8, Opinion 88-15

  2. It sells the service to the client at a visible price

    The client pays the company directly. Its profit can go to the firm, as the Bar's sample form shows. Sample disclosure form

  3. The client signs a written notice and consent

    Who owns the company, that the firm benefits, that it is not a legal service, that the client doesn't have to use it, the terms, and written advice that they may consult independent counsel. Rule 4-1.8(a), Rule 4-5.7(d), Opinion 72-26

The Florida Bar's sample notice“Affiliated Business Disclosure” (2002, PDF). Optional and editable; it predates the current Rule 4-1.8(a), so it is a starting point only.

Where your COO fits. She could likely run or co-own this company, because the rule against partnering with a nonlawyer applies only where the activities include practicing law. That is our reading, and we found no Florida opinion on this exact setup, so it is the question for the hotline. Rule 4-5.4(c)

What the page says

If the firm has any stake, the page discloses it.

Must say

Never say

  • Not referrals or not [the firm], when the firm has a stake or sends its clients there. Our reading of the disclosure duty. Opinion 72-26, Opinion 73-1, Rule 4-8.4(c)
  • Anything implying the services are legal services or carry attorney-client protection. Rule 4-5.7(d)
  • An offer of the firm's legal services, if a nonlawyer pays any part of the page. Rule 4-7.17(c)
  • Anything that sends visitors back to the firm as legal clients. Opinion 02-8, Opinion 72-26
All sourcesEach one read and re-checked on November 2, 2026

Rules Regulating The Florida Bar

From the Bar's official full set, dated October 22, 2026. Each link opens at the rule.

Ethics opinions (advisory, not binding)

  • Opinion 60-26 (1961), a referral fee from a savings institution; modified by 70-13
  • Opinion 63-14 (1963), no secret commissions on client funds; modified by 70-13
  • Opinion 67-25 (1967), per-policy pay from an insurer; modified by 70-13
  • Opinion 70-13 (1970), the client receives the benefit of any finder's fee
  • Opinion 72-6 (1972), recurring referrals with no financial arrangement
  • Opinion 72-26 (1972), a lawyer-owned business and disclosure
  • Opinion 73-1 (1973), a firm-owned title agency
  • Opinion 88-15 (1988), a nonlegal business in the same offices
  • Opinion 89-4 (1989), pay for a nonlawyer marketing director
  • Opinion 02-8 (2004), referral fees and a lawyer-owned ancillary business

Florida Statutes (2026)

Other Florida Bar pages

What we could not confirm

  • A Florida opinion on a firm's nonlawyer employee owning a business that serves the firm's clients.
  • A Florida opinion on reciprocal referral deals with nonlawyers.
  • Whether passing an insurance commission through to a client runs into Florida's rebating rules (moot if the firm never receives it).
  • The Board of Accountancy's rules, and the Bar's fees for reviewing a page.