Construction Manager as Advisor (Agency CM)
A project delivery approach where a construction manager is hired purely as the owner's paid advisor, providing scheduling, cost, and constructability advice throughout design and construction, without ever holding the actual construction contract or taking on financial risk for the work, unlike a [[concept-cm-at-risk|CM at Risk]].
Why it matters
Because an agency CM never converts into the contractor and never guarantees a price, they have no financial incentive pulling against the owner's interests: their only job is to advise. That's different from CM at Risk, where the CM eventually takes on construction risk themselves, which can create a subtle conflict between advising the owner and protecting their own upcoming exposure.
On a real project
A university hires a construction manager purely in an advisory role to help plan a multi-building campus expansion, while separate general contractors are hired to actually hold the construction contracts and perform the work.
Who this matters most to
A Owner's Representative role overlaps closely with agency CM: both work purely on the owner's behalf without taking on construction risk themselves. A Preconstruction Manager on the contractor side interacts with an agency CM as an independent advisor reviewing their numbers, rather than as a construction manager who might eventually become the GC.
Where this goes wrong
An owner assumes an agency CM's cost estimates carry the same weight as a guaranteed maximum price, since the terminology sounds similar to CM at Risk. When actual construction costs come in higher than the agency CM's advisory estimate, the owner has no contractual recourse against the CM: an agency CM never guaranteed the number in the first place, unlike a CM at Risk who would be financially on the hook for the difference.