This article discusses how the industry is gradually shifting toward strata management fee for service models, moving away from commissions and all-inclusive agreements at varying speeds across regions.
Question: With more businesses exploring fee-for-service models, will this model become standard across the industry, or are we still a long way from moving beyond all-inclusive agreements?
Answer: It will happen at different paces at different times, but we will get there.
The shift is on for different service models. The transformation of this is 2 to 3 years if we start now, and some people have. If laws are passed saying commissions are gone, it could happen faster because committees will demand that.
It’s interesting to study what happened when financial planning weaned itself off commissions and went fee-for-service. It took between one and three years. Some got there faster than others.
The members of SCA (ACT) have led the charge and said, “We’re just getting on with it. We want government to outlaw commissions, but we’re getting on with it”. Some of the bigger firms in Canberra are really well down the track of eliminating commissions.
It will happen at different paces at different times, but we will get there. The question referred to all-inclusive fees. That might not necessarily happen. We may still have fixed fees for commodities and hourly rates for other services, but we need to move away from conflicts of interest payments, commissions, and related-party transactions.
Michael Teys Michael Teys Strata Advisory E: admin@michaelteys.com P: +61 419 644 288
This post appears in the December 2025 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.
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