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

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...