In Italian, consigliere means "adviser" or "counselor."This position is typically someone who provides an Inpartial or Unbias opinion on family business. The Consiglere usually decides sit down disputes. You will normally see the Consiglere does not have a major criminal record and most families will try to keep him out of the day to day criminal activities. This is usually because the Consigliere also mediates disputes between other families as well and they are no good to anyone in the can.

As for the position itself, The boss, underboss, and consigliere constitute a three-man ruling panel, or "Administration." of any particular Mafia family. Do not mistake this for a "Ruling Panel" This is just the Administration, just like most normal business have.

Consigliere is generally the number three person in a crime family, after the Boss and underboss in most cases. Typically you will see the Consigliere run day to day operations of the family if the boss gets pinched until an Acting Boss is decided.

Most people believe that even thought the Underboss is held higher in ranking at the number 2 position, the Consigliere actually holds the second most power and authority, behind the Boss. this was in the pre Rico days though, I do not think the position is as powerful by any means today.

As for how he gets paid, Captains very rarely will kick up straight to the boss himself. Typically they kick up to the Consigliere and he takes his cut of the score. Most of the time the Administration of the family divides all the kick up 3 ways, of course with the boss getting the most share.

Hope this helps a little, I could be wrong on some of this but this has been what I have researched, read and watched over the years on the position.