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.
To learn more about Barrington’s benchmark survey capabilities and methodology, please contact:
Hubbard Garber at 617.407.1782
hgarber@barringtonp.com
Judy Benson at 617.462.0622
jbenson@barringtonp.com
Ellen Pedro at 617.320.9918
epedro@barringtonp.com
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