Peter Doherty: The earth isn't flat - the case for contingent fees

‘Commoditised’ v ‘value-added’

clock • 5 min read

Despite what their many critics might say, argues Peter Doherty, contingent fees can deliver the best outcome for clients and indeed, in the context of defined benefit transfers, non-contingent fees are a bad idea

There has of late been plenty of criticism directed towards advisers who charge contingent fees. This criticism is wholly misplaced, I believe - and in fact, for many transactions, it is non-contingent fee structures that are more likely to deliver worse outcomes for customers as a whole.    What is more, it is easy to show that non-contingent fees generate a much higher total fee pool for advisers than contingent fees - and with no additional benefit to customers.   The single most frequent - sometimes only - criticism of contingent charging is this creates an incentive structure whe...

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