A broker at an award-winning brokerage talks through the ultimate way brokers can perfect their craft.
How does mortgage broking industry attract new talent?
It’s a hot topic because the industry is growing rapidly but over half the industry’s established brokers are aged 50 years or older and we see a 50% drop out rate for those entering the industry in the first 18 months. As these brokers exit their businesses the industry needs a new generation of brokers to maintain momentum.
The MFAA commissioned their Young Professionals Report to better understand the next generation of brokers and it found that while support will be provided, it will ultimately be up to each new broker individually to find a suitable path forward.
One of the industry’s newest brokers is Daniel Gold from the Australian Lending & Investment Centre. Gold previously worked in corporate finance at UBS and after 18 months working directly for Mark Davis (principal) as his 2IC, Gold is now taking on his own clients.
“ALIC has a recipe for success” said Gold. “My background is in finance and investments but I was quite happy learning the investment lending business from the ground up if it meant learning from the best. I could have got started as an adviser sooner but I knew the opportunity to learn from Mark would be invaluable”.
His patience could very well pay off. ALIC is Australia’s most awarded independent brokerage and of their four lending managers founders Mark Davis and Kevin Agent were #1 and #4 in our latest MPA top 100 rankings with Seuj Barua finishing #99 and Natasha being named in the MPA Young Gun list.
Over an 18 month development program Gold sat in on over 200 of Davis' client appointments, he put together over 500 of Davis' files and last year he helped him achieve a record breaking $335 million in settlements.
Gold says he feels grateful for the learning experience Davis gave him. “I was never in a rush, I was quite happy taking the time to learn from brokers actually writing 100+ million, you could never learn that quickly from a textbook”.
Over the years ALIC has fine tuned a series of systems and processes designed to handle volume but still deliver an exceptional experience to predominantly more sophisticated wealth focussed clients. “It’s great being around people so passionate about continually raising the bar” said Gold. “First and foremost it was about getting my knowledge up, but then they taught me best practices around managing clients through the process and developing a strong and sustainable business”.
Gold is now the 5th investment lending manager at ALIC and joins Natasha Choi (Mark’s previous 2IC and recent MPA Young Gun) as the industry’s next generation of brokers and there are another four in training who will become accredited later this year.
According to the MFAA Young Professional Report 47% of new brokers come from having worked in the banks. That may be a good start in terms of developing technical product expertise, however to succeed in the industry new brokers are also going to need support and training in numerous other areas as well.
Particularly in the current environment with the banks tightening policies, it’s probably more important than ever for new brokers to ensure they’ve got no gaps in their business.
“Anyone can make a pizza” says Gold. “Running successful restaurants is the hard part”.
Daniel Gold was Mark Davis’ 2IC for 18 months after which he moved into an Investment Lending role advising his own clients. You can find out more about Daniel here.
