Turn a client's career-earned expertise into an asset their business can own
Legacy takes the domain judgment one person built over a career and structures it into a knowledge asset the firm can evaluate and the client can operate. For the right facts, that structure supports a materially better tax position. Your firm stays the relationship throughout.
Add an advanced tax capability without building an advanced strategy desk
Said plainly: a client has spent a career learning things about their market that nobody could research their way into — the patterns, the exceptions, the calls that only come from doing the work. Legacy structures that judgment into a knowledge asset their business owns, maintains, and licenses. The structure is what creates the planning opportunity, and it is what diligence tests.
Your firm keeps the relationship. It identifies the candidate, sits in the qualification conversation, and stays the advisor the client calls. Hearth supplies the capability the firm would otherwise have to build internally — and the goal is not to make every client a Legacy prospect, but to have a real option when the right one appears.
The economics are real, and they are not posted on this page
Firms ask about this early, and they should. What follows is an honest answer about how the participation economics work rather than a number that would be wrong for most engagements.
Scoped per engagement
Legacy engagements differ enough in facts, structure, and work required that Hearth does not publish a rate card or a standard participation schedule. Each one is priced against what it actually takes.
What moves the economics
The client's facts, the depth of diligence the structure requires, the professional work involved, and how much of the ongoing relationship the firm continues to carry.
Put in writing during diligence
The firm sees the economics for a specific candidate in writing while that candidate is being qualified — before any introduction is made, not after the client is already in motion.
If the economics are the deciding question for your firm, ask about them on the first call. Hearth would rather answer it early than have a firm work through qualification and discover the arrangement does not suit the practice.
The right candidate combines a planning need with a body of expertise worth structuring
High income helps the economics screen. It does not replace a specific, practiced edge.
This section helps a CPA decide whether a client belongs in the Legacy conversation. Tax size matters for screening. Substantive qualification still decides.
A qualified candidate typically brings:
- A practiced edge.
Their judgment comes from how they actually make money: sales process, underwriting, ops, deals, or a niche market. Desk research cannot substitute for that.
- Career-earned judgment.
They know patterns, exceptions, failure signals, and tradeoffs outsiders rarely see.
- An active role.
They will personally curate and improve the knowledge asset on a recurring basis.
- Time to participate.8–10 hrs
Most months, expect focused curation work.
- A planning profile worth diligencing.
The client's tax and economic facts justify considering a more advanced strategy.
High earners in sales, operations, and other commercial roles can qualify when their edge is specific and practiced.
Hold off, or dig deeper, when:
- They want the tax outcome without doing the recurring curation work.
- The know-how is not theirs, is not specific enough to operate as an asset, or someone else would have to supply it.
- They want a passive transaction rather than recurring substantive participation.
- They cannot or will not stand behind the quality of the knowledge being curated.
- Professional review does not support the structure for the client's actual facts.
Unsure whether a client fits? Talk it through before you introduce Legacy.
Book a 30-minute firm consultOnce qualified, the client builds, owns and maintains the knowledge asset
The mechanics are easier to evaluate when the client role is concrete. Legacy depends on recurring substantive work, not a passive position or one-time transaction.
Curate.
The client reviews questions, outputs, edge cases and decision logic using the professional judgment that qualified them for Legacy.
Own.
The resulting tools, structured knowledge and curated work product are organized as a proprietary asset owned within the applicable client structure.
Maintain and commercialize.
The client continues the required recurring curation while the asset participates in the applicable commercial licensing relationship.
The tax-planning opportunity depends on the underlying facts and commercial substance. Legacy therefore screens the practitioner's expertise and participation before moving into detailed tax treatment or economics.
Legacy adds the capability without removing the advisor
The accounting firm identifies the opportunity and stays in the client relationship. Hearth supplies the specialized Legacy infrastructure and coordinates qualification and implementation.
Responsibility and client protection are explicit enough for the firm to understand who does what before making a referral.
See the Hearth Partnership Model →Recognizes plausible candidates, stays in the advisory relationship and participates in the qualification conversation.
Coordinates Legacy, program infrastructure, candidate diligence and the operating process.
Address tax and accounting treatment where professional analysis and the client's facts require it.
Supplies the substantive domain judgment, owns and operates the knowledge asset, and maintains the required participation.
Four questions Legacy has to survive for your client
Whether the client's judgment is specific, practiced, and genuinely their own — and whether it can be documented well enough to operate as an asset rather than a description of one.
Ownership, the licensing relationship, and continuing obligations, reviewed as executed documents and professional analysis rather than as a summary of how it is supposed to work.
What the client keeps doing after year one, how that work is substantiated, and what it means for the structure if the participation stops.
Documented cases and methodology alongside the limits on them — prior outcomes describe prior facts, and a new candidate is evaluated on their own.
Start by confirming the fit
Legacy moves quickly when the profile is plausible and stops quickly when the substantive requirements are missing. Detailed economics and implementation come after that first screen.
Bring Hearth the candidate profile.
The firm shares enough information to determine whether a preliminary Legacy review is warranted.
Complete preliminary qualification.
Hearth and the firm determine whether the candidate merits deeper diligence before detailed economics or implementation enter the conversation.
Review the complete strategy.
Qualified candidates receive the deeper structure, tax analysis, obligations, economics and supporting partner materials.
Proceed—or pass.
The strategy moves forward only when the candidate, referring firm and professional review support the actual facts.
Resolve the objections that remain after the strategy makes sense
Does my firm need to use other Hearth capabilities before Legacy?+
No. Legacy can be evaluated as a standalone Hearth capability whenever the firm identifies a plausible candidate.
What happens to my client relationship?+
The intended model keeps the referring firm in the advisory relationship while Hearth supplies the specialized Legacy capability. Client-of-record and relationship protections are documented in the applicable written partnership terms.
Who is responsible for the tax analysis?+
Legacy makes professional responsibility explicit. Qualified tax and accounting professionals address the tax treatment where the engagement and the client's facts require professional analysis; Hearth coordinates the broader program infrastructure.
What if a candidate does not qualify?+
The process stops before deeper implementation or economics. A failed qualification is an acceptable outcome and helps protect both the strategy and the advisor relationship.
Are tax savings guaranteed?+
No. Results are fact-dependent. Public outcome evidence is treated as historical or illustrative rather than a promise of a particular result for a new candidate.
Why aren't the full economics shown here?+
The first public question is whether the client can support the strategy. Candidate-specific economics, tax treatment and implementation details become more useful after that threshold is met.
Have a client who may fit Legacy?
Bring Hearth the candidate profile. We can determine with your firm whether the opportunity warrants deeper qualification and diligence.