We've been reaching out to a lot of local accounting firms and several have replied that they want to get paid a referral fee for an introduction to one of their clients. This seemed to us like a conflict of interest, but since several have asked, we wanted to check with Searchfunder community. We'd obviously be fine paying a finder's fee to an industry consultant or just a well-connected local person, but an accountant taking a fee for an introduction to their client base seems like a conflict of interest (especially if not disclosed to the client and/or if they are already getting paid for work on the sell-side).