Hearth Legacy Program
Turn a career of judgment into a proprietary knowledge asset the client owns, operates, and licenses.
The Hearth Legacy Program is what a CPA firm brings to a client who has outgrown compliance work: typically a high-earning professional with deep domain expertise. The client keeps practicing in their field, owns what they produce, and licenses a curated dataset under a multi-year commercial agreement. The work comes first and the tax result follows it. Program economics are shared on qualification, not on this page.
Why firms name it
Your best clients eventually need more than compliance.
Hearth runs advanced tax planning and long-term strategy for clients on behalf of accounting firms: Hearth designs and runs the work, the EA-led firm of record signs it, and your firm stays the client's advisor. The Hearth Legacy Program sits at the top of that work. Once a client has a documented comp figure and clean books, the next conversation is rarely another compliance product. It's a client with domain depth, hours to give, and enough at stake to want a strategy. The program gives your firm something to bring to that client without building a strategy desk from scratch.
Who qualifies
For professionals whose expertise has outgrown their tax strategy.
If tax savings is the whole motivation, it's not a fit. We say that in the first conversation, with the firm in the room.
What the client walks away with
Three durable assets. None of them a paper tax play.
A role that matches their expertise
They set the questions worth asking in their field and stand behind the quality of what gets produced.
Ownership of the work product
Their company owns the research tools it runs and the industry datasets they curate. Outright.
A multi-year commercial relationship
The curated dataset licenses to an independent platform. The fees compensate the license and the ongoing expertise. Economics are shared during qualification.
How delivery runs
Your firm in front. Hearth structures. The client practices.
Your firm keeps the relationship. Hearth runs the engagement so the client can stay in their expertise. The contribution gets logged, because the whole arrangement depends on the work being done.
Confirm the fit, with the firm.
Your firm confirms the expertise is there and the client has the hours. No proposal without both.
Stand up and contribute.
We stand up the client's side of the engagement. The client directs research, reviews output, and improves an industry dataset only a practitioner can curate. Eight to ten hours most months, logged.
License the dataset and keep going.
The curated work enters a multi-year license with an independent platform. The client keeps contributing, and the commercial relationship keeps pace. Where the facts support tax architecture, it travels with qualified professionals in the loop.
Not a paper transaction. The client owns what they produce, does logged domain work, and collects contracted fees from a platform they don't control.
Not a pooled fund or a passive contribution. Each participant owns 100% of their own company and assets. Only the curated dataset is licensed.
Why it holds up under review
Built so advisors can examine it without guesswork.
Participation is logged, ownership is clear, and the platform counterparty is independent. That's how the engagement keeps a clean story under review.
Logged participation
Owner Service Covenant
The client's service commitment, in writing: regular subject-matter contribution, logged and exportable, 8 to 10 hours most months, personal and non-delegable.
Clear ownership
Client company, client assets
The client owns the tools they run and the datasets they curate. Obligation follows ownership, including on financed paths where the economic responsibility is genuine.
Independent counterparty
Arm's-length license
The platform licensee is independent of Hearth. License fees are commercial activity, not a circular paper loop.
The documentation is not optional.
If the client won't do the logged work, we won't run the program. The work comes first; the tax result follows it.
Your firm's place in it
Your firm stays in front. Always.
Clients enter through a CPA or partner firm whenever one exists. The firm keeps the client on written client-of-record and no-poach terms. Where the facts support structure and tax architecture, that work travels with qualified professionals in the loop: McGee's Consulting LLC or the referring firm. Hearth Agency LLC is not a CPA firm, law firm, or RIA.
The standard
Every engagement holds up to a professional read.
Every engagement is individual, and the work is documented so the referring firm can read it without guesswork. We don't ship trust-us strategies, and we don't accept participants who treat the contribution as optional or the tax result as the point.
Brought by your firm
For a firm's best clients: high earners with deep domain expertise.
No obligation
How a firm opens the conversation.
01 · Spot the client.
A high earner with deep domain expertise, whose situation has outgrown basic planning. Not every client fits; the partner kit has a one-page guide for spotting the ones who do.
02 · Screen together.
Domain depth and calendar capacity first, your firm and Hearth in the same conversation. If tax is the only motive, the conversation ends there.
03 · Economics after fit.
Program economics are shared only once fit is clear. The firm and the client decide with full materials, or pass with no pressure.
Questions
Common questions
Does the client need to be technical?
No. They need domain excellence. We don't need them to be software engineers; we need judgment only practitioners have.
How much time does the client commit?
Plan on 8 to 10 focused hours most months, personally. That's the Owner Service Covenant: not full-time, not zero, and not delegable.
What does the client own?
Their company owns the tools it runs and the datasets they curate. Only the curated dataset licenses to the platform. Their professional identity is never for sale.
Is this a tax program?
It's a contribution and ownership program. Where the facts support it, deliberate structure sits underneath, and advisors can examine all of it. If tax is the only reason the client is interested, they're not a fit.
Can my firm stay the advisor of record?
Yes. That's the default, on written client-of-record and no-poach terms. Partner firms refer clients in and stay the trusted advisor.
When should a firm propose this instead of staying on comp work?
When the client has the expertise, the income, and the appetite for a long-term strategy. Never as more tax strategy stacked on top of HearthRC Defense.
Think you have the client for this?
Start with the one-page guide in the partner kit. It starts with one conversation, everyone in the room.
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, financial, or investment advice. The Hearth Legacy Program involves active business participation and multi-year contractual obligations. Outcomes, commercial or tax, are not guarantees of any specific result. Prospective participants should consult their own qualified advisors. Hearth Agency LLC is not a CPA firm, law firm, or registered investment advisor. Program economics are disclosed on qualification only.