Brokers will not get tossed to the wayside in
Mortgage Choice’s drive to expand its financial advice section, a company spokesperson reassures.
To support the rapid growth of its network of financial advisers, Mortgage Choice has appointed two new practice development managers, Garth Campbell and Joseph Raad.
Mortgage Choice's financial planning general manager Tania Milnes said the two appointments highlight the company's aggressive growth plans for advisers.
"The financial planning side of the business has been in operation for the past 18 months and has achieved significant growth in that time," she said.
Spokesperson
Jessica Darnbrough told
Australian Broker the company’s mortgage network has been around 22 years while the financial planning side is only young, and that is why it is there is emphasis on growth in this sector.
The company has 507 loan writers at franchises across Australia, and would like to do the same with financial planners.
“The advice side of the business is the main focus right now because its young it’s harder to grow, but they are growing together. The advice part is definitely not taking away from broker growth plans.”
Brokers will not get left behind, Darnbrough said.
“We’re also growing our mortgage broking footprint. With our loan writers, business is strong, but we need more feet on the ground.
"However we understand hiring more writers is expensive for our franchisees, so at the start of the year we offered a deal that those franchises that sign up new loan writers will get rewarded with their costs covered for bringing someone on.”
The ‘Plus One’ initiative offers franchisees a monetary incentive and HR resources to bring a new loans consultant into their business.
Mortgage Choice hoped the new incentive will help grow the company’s total broker numbers by up to 20%.
“Our goal was to have 50 new writers by 1 July and we’re already at 43 so we’re right on target,” Darnbrough said.
“It’s a very aggressive growth plans but we have been shocked at the amount of franchises crying out for writers. We understand the industry is expanding; we want to provide brokers with support.”
Mortgage Choice has chosen to keep mortgage brokers and financial planners separate rather than performing both roles.
“We’re not letting the two wear both hats. It’s because we want to make sure consumers are getting specialist advice in both areas,” Darnbrough said.
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