# Retainer

A fee paid up front for an advisor's time, whether or not a deal closes.

It buys attention rather than an outcome, and that cuts both ways. A firm charging one has a reason to work the file from the first week instead of waiting to see whether a buyer turns up, while a firm charging nothing earns only on a closing, so its incentive is volume. The question to ask is whether the retainer credits against the success fee at the end. A credited retainer is a timing question; an uncredited one is a real cost that never comes back, whatever happens to the deal.

In numbers: A $5,000 monthly retainer credited against a $150,000 success fee costs the seller nothing extra when the deal closes in month six.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/retainer
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

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