No. Under Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law — Fla. Stat. ch. 559, Part XV, §§ 559.9611–559.9615, effective January 1, 2024 — a commercial financing broker may not assess or collect an advance fee before your financing is completed. The same section, § 559.9614, also bars a broker from making false or misleading statements about the financing it arranges, and requires the broker's business address and telephone number to appear in its advertising.
An advance fee is any payment a broker asks you to make before a deal closes and funds, regardless of what it's labeled. "Application fee," "processing fee," "due diligence fee," and "commitment fee" are the four names it hides behind most often. A legitimate origination fee is different: it's charged by the funder, not the broker, and it's netted out of the proceeds at closing — never collected upfront, never paid separately, never due before you have money in hand.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and statutes are amended over time. For a specific situation, talk to a Florida-licensed attorney.
No. Since January 1, 2024, § 559.9614 of Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law has barred a commercial financing broker from assessing or collecting an advance fee before the financing is completed. "Completed" means the deal has closed and funded — not signed, not approved, not "in underwriting." Before that point, a compliant broker collects nothing from you.
Any payment requested from you, the business owner, before your financing has closed and funded, in exchange for the broker's work in shopping, submitting, or processing your file. It doesn't matter whether it's called a deposit, a retainer, or a flat charge — collected before completion, it falls under the same rule. It also doesn't matter whether it's framed as refundable; the statute addresses when it's collected, not whether it's returned later.
Four labels show up most often in practice. None of them make the charge legal if it's collected before your deal funds.
| Label commonly used | What it's framed as | Legal if collected before funding? |
|---|---|---|
| "Application fee" | Cost of reviewing your file | No |
| "Processing fee" | Cost of preparing or submitting paperwork | No |
| "Due diligence fee" | Cost of verifying your financials | No |
| "Commitment fee" | Cost of "securing" a funder's offer | No |
| Funder's origination fee | Funder's cost of extending the financing | Yes — charged by the funder, netted from proceeds at closing, not collected before |
No, and the difference is exactly what the statute separates: who charges it, and when. An origination fee is charged by the funder providing the financing, not the broker arranging it, and it's netted out of the amount disbursed at closing — you never write a separate check for it, and it's never due before the deal funds. A broker's advance fee, by contrast, is charged by the broker, requested before completion, and is what § 559.9614 prohibits outright. If you can't tell which one you're being asked for, ask directly which entity is charging it and when it's actually collected.
| Broker advance fee | Funder origination fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Who charges it | The broker | The funder |
| When it's collected | Before financing is completed | Netted from proceeds at closing |
| Legal in Florida? | No — prohibited under § 559.9614 | Yes — a standard, disclosed cost of the financing itself |
Ask what, specifically, the fee is for, and whether your financing has closed and funded yet. If the answer is no and the broker still wants payment, that's a direct conflict with Florida law — decline, and consider taking your file elsewhere.
Treat any of these as a stop sign:
Legitimate brokers, including this one, are compensated by the funder once a deal closes — the entire structural reason a broker's incentive should point toward matching your file correctly, not extracting a fee regardless of outcome.
Two more rules sit in the same section as the advance-fee prohibition. A broker may not make false or misleading statements about the financing it arranges, whether about approval odds, cost, or terms. And a broker must include its business address and telephone number in its advertising; an ad with no way to locate the business behind it is itself a compliance gap. Jon Lynch Financial Group's address and phone number appear in the footer of this page, as they do on every page of this site.
Florida's Office of Financial Regulation administers this law and can pursue civil penalties against a broker or provider that violates it. This page won't guess at specific dollar amounts or case outcomes — that depends on the facts of a given matter, and it's a question for the regulator or a Florida-licensed attorney, not a general information page. What's clear without guessing: a broker asking for money before your deal funds is asking you to accept the exact practice this statute exists to stop.
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