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A Queensland-based finance broker’s decision to diversify into conveyancing is paying off, with his fast-expanding legal business now rivalling the original finance arm measured by revenue in 2024.
Logan Stanford (pictured above), founder of brokerage Stanford Financial, expanded into conveyancing in 2022 as a diversification initiative, as well as to provide a better conveyancing service to his finance clients.
Stanford said a story in a memoir written by former US President Barack Obama about a broker he had used going out of business during the GFC spurred the move to future-proof his business.
“That was sort of the first moment that I knew that we should diversify the business, and in a way where, in an economic downturn, it would still be protected,” said Stanford.
He said he had also had difficulty finding a quality conveyancing service for his clients.
“We had referred to more than a dozen conveyancers, and we couldn’t find one that delivered the quality of service we were providing and thought that our clients deserved.”
Since then the legal business, Stanford Legal, has itself expanded into family, property, and wills and estates law, to the point where it now brings in 90% of the revenues achieved by the financial arm.
“It's a really interesting split where I can see at the moment that they're [Stanford Legal] potentially going to become more profitable than the brokerage,” Stanford said.
Stanford, who has just turned 25 and only launched his original mortgage and finance business in July 2020, said the move to diversify into the legal field was not an immediate financial success.
“I poured money into it like a bucket for years,” he said. “It lost hundreds of thousands before it started making a profit, which is why I was lucky that I had a profitable finance business that could pay the bills for those years.”
However, moves into areas such as family law have been driven by client needs, such as former mortgage clients going through a separation and needing to divide property and other assets.
Stanford said the diversification initiative fitted within a broader vision the team had for client service.
“It comes down to our mission statement as a company, which is to guide Australians through life’s biggest moments,” he said.
“All those four areas, whether it be home lending, family law, property law, or succession law – all four of those are centred around the family home.
“They’re some of the biggest moments in life when people remember who was there for them.”
Stanford Financial and Stanford Legal now both do multiple millions in revenue each; Stanford Financial has a headcount of 13, while the legal business is up to six and is still growing.
While unable to confirm details at this stage, Stanford said he planned to expand into “a new business area” in 2025, further diversifying the services provided to clients.
“The overlap we see a lot is with professional services. And just like with the law, I'm not a financial planner, I'm not an accountant, but we have clients, you know, who are battering our doors down to help them out with that. And it's no secret, really, that we're not done.”
Stanford said he also had big plans that went well beyond 2025 as he was “just getting started”.
“We have a vision for the end of the decade of where we want to get to, and I make no secret as well that it’s my ambition for our brand to be a household name in my lifetime.
Stanford said that, ultimately, that would be built on quality conversations his team had with clients.
“I've had family who have needed a solicitor before, and I can tell you the feeling that you get when you walk into your lawyer's office, and you just feel like it's all going to be okay,” he said.
“Your lawyer sits you down, and says, ‘Logan, don't worry about it, it's going to be all right’. And you just take a deep breath. That's the power we have as a law firm, as a brokerage. That's what we want to do for people.”
