The standard structure
Retained executive search is priced as a proportion of the appointed executive's first-year cash compensation — base salary plus target bonus. Across the established firms, the range clusters tightly between 30 and 35 percent, with the upper end attached to the largest global partnerships and highly specialised or international mandates. Some firms set minimum fees; at the senior end these commonly begin in the range of 90,000 to 120,000 dollars or the local equivalent.
The fee is usually invoiced in three stages: a third on engagement, a third on presentation of the shortlist, and a third on completion. This structure exists because most of the value of a search is created before any candidate is met — in the definition of the role, the mapping of the market, and the assessment evidence the board will ultimately rely on.
What the fee actually buys
The fee purchases three things: privileged access to candidates who are not on the market, senior assessor time, and the research infrastructure that maps an entire field rather than a convenient slice of it. A firm that cannot name the people it will call on day one, or that cannot show you how it will cover the market, is not selling retained search regardless of what the proposal says.
It also purchases candour. A retained advisor has no incentive to push a quick placement, because the fee does not depend on which candidate is chosen or how fast. That alignment is what makes the advice usable.
When a low quote is a warning
A quote materially below the market range almost always means one of two things: the mandate will be worked by junior staff with a senior name on the cover page, or the firm is running the search on contingent capacity — reaching only the candidates it already knows. Neither delivers the market coverage a board should expect at this level. The more useful negotiation is over scope, assessment depth, and the seniority of who does the work, not over the headline percentage.
Questions worth asking before you sign
Ask who will personally run the search and how many concurrent mandates they hold. Ask how the fee behaves if the appointed executive leaves within the first year. And ask for two references from boards that used the firm for a comparable appointment in the last eighteen months. Firms confident in their delivery answer all three without hesitation.