What is depositing gil to a retainer for?

In Realm Reborn they keep mentioning that you can safely entrust your gil to your retainer. What is that supposed to be for? You don't lose gil for dying, I think.

I know that retainers can have their own gil balance, because you need to retrieve the gil you got from selling items - so withdrawing is ok. But why deposit?

Solution 1:

Being able to give gil to your retainer is likely just a holdover from version 1.0 of the game, where retainers would more directly carry out buying and selling items in the markets on your behalf, so there was actually a purpose to giving them money. For example, you could set up your retainer with a stash of money and a "buy" order, so that other players could choose to sell items to your retainer for an offer price that you set up ahead of time. Likewise, for a period of time you could put your gear up for repair with your retainer, along with a gil reward for any players that repaired that gear.

Although it currently serves no necessary purpose right now, some players like to use their retainers as a piggy bank; a place to squirrel away money so they can't impulse-buy things from the market wards as easily. :)

Solution 2:

If you transfer a character between worlds, the most you can carry is 1,000,000 gil, but your retainers each can carry 100,000 more, so there is some (marginal) use.

Otherwise, it is as Panic Bomb said, in that they are more of a holdover from 1.* versions.

I hope that in a future update, they add the ability to add buy orders to your retainers.