Some lawyers have started to cap their legal fees by agreeing to a pre-negotiated fixed fee. Usually, legal fees are billable by the hour. The introduction of negotiated fixed fee is good for clients because the cost of legal service is known upfront. However, such pre-negotiated fee is only applicable when the exact scope of work is known right from the beginning. Will this be applicable in the financial sector?
In the financial sector, the ‘fee’ is never fixed. Most financial advisers claims to give ‘free’ advice but in reality the fee is embedded into the product sold. The fee that is embedded into the product is known as commissions which can vary significantly from product to product. It is possible for the client to pay anywhere from a few dollars (e.g. travel insurance) to $60,000 (e.g. $5000 monthly investment using certain product) in fee that is ......