Apollo charges monitoring fees to some of the companies it owns, arguing that it is entitled to collect on the consulting and advice it provides these companies.
Some investors have negotiated lower management fees to be paid to general partners, or for a greater share of monitoring fee income to be used as an offset to the management fees.
As I detail in a report earlier this year, the SEC found misdeeds including manipulating the value of portfolio companies, waiving their fiduciary responsibility to investors, incorrectly charging PE firm expenses to investors and failing to share monitoring fee income with them, and collecting transactions fees from portfolio companies without registering as broker-dealers.
In other words, the more people paying that monthly monitoring fee on your street, the more likely a burglar is not going to take a chance that a police officer is right around the corner.
In addition, ADT charges a monthly monitoring fee of $49.99 for the iCenter, compared with $26.99 for its other systems.
Both KKR and Pessina's company each collected a £1.8m so-called "monitoring fee" during the year.
There is a slightly higher monthly monitoring fee, but it substantially undercuts the cost of maintaining a landline service.
The average monthly monitoring fee is $30, but, Mr. Bratton said, "their real cost is only $5, leaving the rest for profit".
So if you are one of the millions of Americans paying a monthly monitoring fee of $25 to nearly $100, what are you getting for your money?
While paying a monthly monitoring fee may make little financial sense, finding a service that provides you peace of mind is invaluable.
