Your rise up the corporate ladder may just have become steeper. New agents are increasingly finding brokerages that demand nothing less than two or three years’ experience.
Your rise up the corporate ladder may just have become steeper. New agents are increasingly finding brokerages that demand nothing less than two or three years’ experience.
“It’s a rule we’ve had for a while and although we’ve made exceptions in the past for some former bank employees, we’re looking to enforce our two-year minimum requirement,” Drew Donaldson, executive VP of sales for Verico SafeBridge Financial, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “It’s really about ensuring that our team is able to provide the level of service our clients require.”
The GTA brokerage, which twins wealth management and other services with mortgages, is not alone. Other brokerages are raising their own barriers to entry for agents, demanding they bring years of experience to the table.
The practice represents a change from the industry status quo, but better mirrors the standards of other industries where young professionals are forced to train at smaller firms in smaller markets before working their way up to positions with more-established or prestigious players.
Donaldson argues that SafeBridge’s requirement helps to advance the professional expectation for agents with the brokerage and, presumably, the good name it has actively garnered for itself as a premium firm.
Still, it’s important established brokers and brokerages continue to take new entrants under their wing, argue some mortgage professionals, pointing to a spotty retention record in parts of the industry.
In an increasingly competitive market, Ontario suffered a spike in the number of young agents quitting the industry with last year’s relicensing exercise.
