Retainership

A retainership is an ongoing professional relationship, typically between a client and a service provider, where the client pays a recurring fee (retainer) in exchange for guaranteed access to the provider's services, expertise, and/or availability, regardless of actual service usage. It ensures priority access, allows for proactive consultation, and fosters a deeper, often longer-term partnership. The scope of services is usually pre-defined, and the arrangement offers predictability for both parties regarding budget and workload.

Retainership meaning with examples

• The law firm offered a corporate retainership to provide legal counsel on demand, allowing the company to avoid the cost and delays associated with finding new legal support each time a need arose. This ensured quick responses to any legal queries and ongoing regulatory compliance checks.
• As a branding agency, we proposed a retainership for the upcoming marketing campaign, ensuring the company’s marketing budget was properly utilized, and allowing us to maintain brand consistency while having access to our core team as needed for changes.
• The IT company’s retainership agreement provided the small business with constant access to IT support including maintenance and emergency assistance, assuring minimum business downtime with immediate problem solving assistance.
• A popular author entered a retainership with a literary agency to secure dedicated representation and marketing support. The writer hoped that would aid book placement and help the author be consistently in front of publishers and potential business partnerships.
• Many small and medium businesses often engage the services of an accountant on a retainership basis. In turn, this is useful to help ensure all accounting records and reports are kept in a timely and organized fashion