Payment of Referral Fees to Non-Lawyers

[mountainzone]

I work as a financial planner and for years I have been referring my estate planning work to a lawyer who has an office in the same building as my offices are in. This lawyer has always paid me a $50 referral fee for any of my clients who I send to him for estate planning. Recently, I started using my sister in law, who is also an attorney, and when mentioned the other lawyer paid a $50 fee per client, she freaked out and said, "that is totally unethical and I could get disbarred for that." I am curious to know who is correct on this issue, the first lawyer I used ( who also was a judge for many years) or my sister in law. Can anyone give me some clarification on this?

[aaron]

My money is on your sister-in-law. Every state I know of bars lawyer fees from paying referral fees to non-lawyers.