I am sad they created the expansion of duties permit, as I had a much better suggestion for Free Company retainers. My suggestion for FC Retainers was this:
To actually have each house/property/piece of land come with its own retainer, standard. One separate from your own retainers that is exclusively attached to the house and whose gill coffer is linked with the properties FC chest. That way, it facilitates a way for members of an FC to contribute to the FC by putting items in the retainer for sale on behalf of the FC, the proceeds of which will go directly into the FC gill coffer. Not everyone is easy to part with their gill but, for instance; non crafters are quick to sell their crafting materia and DoW's will usually forgo their DoM gear drops for certain reasons. Settings can be placed on retainer accessibility just like the guild chest or the garden, dictating which ranks can place and/or retrieve items.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Good Idea? Bad Idea?