A broker is paid by the funder, not by the business, and only after a deal funds. Commission is typically structured as points — a percentage of the funded amount — and it comes out of the funder's own margin. It's built into the price on your offer sheet: the factor rate and terms you're quoted already reflect it. That's a different claim than "free," and the difference is worth knowing.
Two things get confused constantly: commission a funder pays a broker, and a fee a broker charges the business directly. JLFG collects the first, from the funder, on funded deals only. We charge business owners nothing — no application fee, no document fee, nothing before or after funding. In Florida, that's not a courtesy we extend at our own discretion; it's illegal for a commercial financing broker to collect an advance fee before financing is completed (Fla. Stat. § 559.9614).
Search "MCA broker commission" and you'll find numbers that don't agree — "up to 11%," "5–15%," "average 10%," "2%–10%." None of those sources are lying. They're measuring different things. What follows is the mechanism itself, not one more guess at a single number.
of small business financing applicants received the full amount they requested
Federal Reserve, 2026 Small Business Credit Survey
The other 58% are negotiating, reapplying, or comparing offers from more than one funder — and commission, named or not, is embedded in every one of those numbers.
A broker is paid a commission by the funder — commonly structured as points, a percentage of the amount funded — after the deal closes, not before. On an illustrative $100,000 advance, 8 points equals $8,000, paid out of the funder's own margin, not added to what the business repays as a separate charge.
The mechanism underneath: a funder sets a buy rate reflecting its actual cost of capital and its read of the file's risk. The price quoted to the business sits above that buy rate, and that gap holds two things at once — the funder's own margin, and room for whatever it pays a broker for the referral. Some funders pay a flat commission schedule regardless of what's quoted. Others give a broker latitude to set the price within a range above the funder's floor, and the broker's compensation is whatever spread results. Neither structure changes what you owe beyond the price on the offer itself.
| Step | What happens | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Funder sets its buy rate | Reflects that funder's true cost of capital and its read of the file's risk | No one yet — internal to the funder |
| 2. Funder quotes a sell rate | Includes its own margin and room for broker commission | Reflected in your factor rate |
| 3. Deal funds | Advance is disbursed to the business | — |
| 4. Funder pays broker commission | A percentage of the funded amount — points — from the funder's own margin | The funder, not the business |
| 5. Business remits on schedule | Holdback collected as a percentage of revenue, per the signed offer | The business — the agreed price only |
Built in. The factor rate and terms on your offer sheet already reflect it — nothing gets layered onto your remittance afterward for a broker's cut.
That's exactly why "free" is the wrong word, even when it's the word you'll hear. "Not billed to you directly" is accurate. "Free" isn't — the funder's price already accounts for paying someone, whether that someone is a broker who sourced the deal or an in-house originator on the funder's own payroll. The honest version: it costs you nothing beyond what you'd owe anyway for that specific offer, from that specific funder, on that specific day.
What it doesn't tell you is whether that offer was competitive. A broker can be commission-neutral to your final price and still have shown you only one option. That's a separate question, and it's the one worth asking next.
Because they're measuring different things. A flat-points structure, a rate markup, and a blended average across dozens of funders' differing commission scales are three different numbers wearing the same label.
| Published figure | Common source | What it's likely measuring |
|---|---|---|
| "Up to 11%" | Software or CRM vendor marketing | A ceiling case on one commission structure, not a typical placement |
| "5%–15%" | MCA-defense attorney sites | A range drawn from disputed or litigated files, not routine ones |
| "Average 10%" | Industry blog or vendor content | A blended figure across many funders' differing commission scales |
| "2%–10%" | Another vendor source | A different commission model entirely — flat points versus a rate markup |
No single figure was ever going to describe this honestly, because commission isn't set industry-wide — it's negotiated funder by funder, and it moves with file risk, deal size, and how a particular funder structures its own compensation model. A defense attorney citing a range from litigated files and a vendor citing an average across its own client base are both telling the truth about what they measured. Neither is describing your file.
Because each funder's buy box is its own — its cost of capital, its risk appetite, and its current portfolio all shape the price it quotes, independent of what any other funder would do with the identical bank statements. The same $80,000 file can clear one funder's box at one price and a different funder's box at a meaningfully different one, without either underwriter making a mistake.
Commission structure is part of that variance, not all of it. A funder with a lower cost of capital has more room in its price before it stops being profitable — room that can go toward a better rate for the business, more commission room for a broker, or both. How a funder's buy box actually works covers the underwriting side of this in full; what matters here is that price variance across funders is normal and structural, not evidence that someone is being overcharged.
If you want to see how a specific offer's total cost compares to another, the free calculator at /finance/tools/prequalify/ separates factor rate from total dollars repaid in about a minute — worth running before you accept anything.
Ask this, exactly: "Is there a broker commission reflected in this price, and what would your rate be without one?" Not every funder will answer with a number. How they answer is the useful part.
A funder or broker who answers plainly — even with "we don't break that out, but here's the total you'd pay either way" — is behaving differently than one who deflects, gets defensive, or changes the subject to urgency. Ask the identical question of every funder in a shopped file and you get a real comparison: not of factor rates in isolation, but of how each party responds to a direct question about how it's paid.
This question costs nothing to ask and tells you something a rate sheet never will.
No. Zero, in every case. JLFG is paid only by the funder, and only when a deal actually funds.
That's not a courtesy extended at our discretion. Florida law prohibits a commercial financing broker from collecting an advance fee before financing is completed, misrepresenting the financing, or advertising without a business address and phone number (Fla. Stat. § 559.9614). We'd hold this line regardless — it's the baseline for operating honestly in this business, not a selling point. If a broker asks you for money before a deal funds — an application fee, a document fee, an underwriting fee — that request is the entire conversation. Stop there.
A few honest lines:
Working capital, evaluated honestly. See how JLFG's placement process actually works — including how we're paid — before you send anyone a file.
See how secure capital works →No credit pull to look. Business-purpose financing only.
Under $20K a month in deposits? Most of what's above is priced for businesses doing $50K or more a month in deposits — that's the core of what we place. Funding doesn't stop below that line, though; the structure just changes. There's a program built for exactly your revenue level, and the same rule applies either way.
See what you qualify for →Handled through a funding partner. No upfront cost, and we're paid only if it funds.