The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the wealth-management business is under siege, as regulators crack down on fees and low-cost funds hurt total revenues. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes that the industry's evolution may have an affect on Canadian corporations. Many rely on retail investors to buy shares whenever they finance. Without advisers, or with fewer of them, it is possible there will be less demand for new share issues. This worries Bay Street bankers. Whenever there is a new stock offering by a company such as Suncor Energy or Barrick Gold, the issuer pays a fee to the investment bank that underwrites the sale, usually around 4 per cent of the deal's value. Retail advisers who buy these shares for their clients typically get half of the fee for helping to sell the issue. This compensation model is quickly growing outdated. Fee-based accounts, where advisers earn a flat annual fee, often worth 1 per cent or 1.5 per cent of the assets under their management, are becoming the norm. This model is widely seen as better aligning advisers with their clients, because there are no incentives for the advisers to buy and sell stocks simply to generate sales commissions.