Finder's fee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the United States, a finder's fee is the compensation given to an intermediary in a business transaction. Usually, there is a casual relationship between the one party and the intermediary (the finder), another relationship between the finder and the second party, and the two parties of the transaction would not have met if it weren't for the work of the finder. Such compensation is common in business and is regulated by contractual agreements and law in the United States.[1] A finder's fee can also be a gift from one party of the transaction, who feel morally obligated that the profits of the transaction be shared with the finder for making that transaction possible.[2]
A comparable practice exists in medicine, called fee-splitting: if a cardiologist performs an angiogram and advises the patient to have a CABG operation, naming a specific cardiac surgeon, the surgeon can divide his/her fee with the referring cardiologist. Similarly, if a gastroenterologist performs a colonoscopy and finds a tumor that he/she is not licensed to remove, he/she can refer the patient to a surgeon who is so licensed. The surgeon can reward the referring doctor with a portion of the surgical fee. This cozy arrangement is generally illegal.
