BENCHMARK SURVEY: Intermediary Fees Survey
Barrington Partners published its sixth edition of the bi-annual Intermediary Fee Survey in May of 2016. Thirty-six firms participated and reported $1.8 trillion in intermediary AUM which represented almost 6,400 distinct fee arrangements and $6.38 billion in intermediary fee payments. The survey will be repeated again in 2018. (As with all Barrington benchmarking surveys, only participating firms receive a copy of the final report; each participant’s report is customized to allow comparisons against randomized representations of the other participants’ anonymous responses.)
The goal of this survey is straightforward: What is the market rate for intermediary fees in different distribution channels and how does each Participant compare?
Benchmarking intermediary fees allows a fund company to obtain deep insights into the complex world of intermediary fees and their market rates …
Two key elements in producing this survey are defining the types and structures of intermediary fee payments (such as 12b-1, fund and advisor paid service fees, and revenue sharing), and delineating the channels and platforms in which intermediaries operate (e.g., Supermarket: NTF and Broker/Dealer: Advisory). Our final report examines a variety of intermediary fee metrics, including the use of classes in intermediary arrangements, the differing construction of intermediary fee arrangements among participants in a particular platform and between platforms, board caps, and the entity paying the fees (fund and/or advisor). (For anti-trust reasons, participants are precluded from providing the names of any intermediaries.)
… and helps them consider their intermediary agreements in comparison with their industry peers.
- Firms are able to assess the appropriateness and structure of each intermediary fee arrangement within a particular platform.
- Participants are able to determine if the selected class is optimal for the requirements of the target platform.
- Boards of Trustees/fund management can use the data from this survey to confirm the suitability of fund or internal entity caps.