Tech, AI and diversification to command centre stage
Technology, artificial intelligence, diversification. These are shaping up to be the three themes of focus at LMG’s upcoming Growth Summit, taking place on the Gold Coast this Tuesday and Wednesday.
LMG executive chairman Sam White is scheduled to kick proceedings off with a discussion around where the broking industry is headed and what it will take to be a leader in this evolving broking landscape.
The event – which was delayed in mid-March as Cyclone Alfred swept across Queensland and northern NSW – is also set to feature panel discussions on how top-tier LMG brokers are future-proofing their businesses.
LMG is in the midst of overhauling its technology stack to cater to the evolving needs of the future broker.
The aggregator is using the Growth Summit as the launchpad of MyCRM Diversified, its brand-new broker platform that brings residential, commercial and asset finance under a single umbrella.
MyCRM Diversified “hones in on one of our key promises which is to help brokers diversify their income”, LMG’s national director Rob Thomas (pictured) told MPA in the run up to the Growth Summit.
The platform launch comes as brokers, more than ever, are having to expand beyond their comfort zones in order to match the increasingly sophisticated needs of customers. There are numerous schools of thought in how to achieve this, such as education, hiring adequate staff, and tapping referral networks.
In Thomas’ view, “the first thing is to not shy away from diversification, so we want to give them the option to diversify themselves by referring to other asset or commercial specialists via our platform."
"We back our brokers' growth, and if they're not diversifying they are leaving money on the table,” he said.
Meanwhile, LMG’s Brokerversity education platform, which recently recorded 100,000 lesson completions, is designed to address existing skills shortages.
To each their own
In Thomas’ experience, all brokers are different when it comes to diversification. “Some want to keep focusing on pure residential lending and refer out to asset and commercial, some want to do it all themselves, and others (particularly the larger businesses) want to bring someone new in,” he said.
LMG intends to “give brokers the opportunity to diversify if they want to”, said Thomas, with MyCRM Diversified positioned as the tech stack to make it happen.
“We’re basically trying to take away some of the myths around commercial lending,” said Thomas. “A lot of resi brokers believe commercial finance is beyond their reach, but MyCRM Diversified helps to make it intuitive to do commercial lodgements.”
Part of making the process intuitive is giving brokers the tools to do the commercial analysis that commercial bankers (who can more or less do such analysis “on the back of a beer coaster”) want to see.
Regarding the common misconceptions he often sees in the field of commercial lending, Thomas said: “They see it as some mythical industry where credit members and commercial brokers have a secret source to getting deals done.”
It may not be as fundamentally arcane as that, although Thomas doesn’t disagree that commercial broking can be a difficult endeavour for novices, given the large qualities of due diligence and cash flow analysis, among other things, involved.
“It can be very complex, there’s no doubt about it. As soon as some brokers hear commercial, they throw their hands up and refer them onwards.”
While that may be an appropriate course of action, Thomas believes MyCRM Diversified will give brokers the means to pursue diversifications how they see fit. Through workshops and interactive sessions, Growth Summit attendees will be given the opportunity to decide for themselves.
AI and its consequences
All industries are facing mass upheaval with the rise of AI and mortgage broking is no different. For Thomas, the inevitable changes that AI will bring to broking are “both terrifying and exciting at the same time”.
“How we embrace AI is going to be critical… how we navigate serviceability calculators and lender policies will be key.”
Evidently, brokers agree – LMG’s AI workshop on Wednesday has seen double the amount of interest of all others, said Thomas.
