"Our job is to reduce stress for people – not increase it with poor or slow communication"
Just two weeks to go until the return of the annual New Zealand Mortgage Awards.
The 2025 celebration – scheduled for April 10 from 6:30pm to 9:30pm at the Auckland War Memorial Museum – brings together the nation's top talent in the mortgage world, as the industry shines a light on best practices and leadership over the last year.
Attendees include commercial mortgage advisers, lenders, aggregators, business development managers, brokerages, loan administrators and service providers, all of whom come to mingle, learn about new trends in the mortgage space and hopefully take home one of the coveted awards.
This year's event includes an appearance by New Zealand's own radio and television host Jeremy Corbett, who will serve as MC, and DJ Venetia supplying the tunes.
Non-bank lender Liberty Financial will once act as event partner. Sponsors include Avanti Finance, Basecorp Finance, Bizcap, FAMNZ, Finbase, Finsure New Zealand, First Mortgage Trust, Kiwi Advisor Network, Link Financial Group, NZFSG, Pepper Money, Prospa and XCEDA.
Tickets can be purchased here.
Ahead of this year's festivities, New Zealand Adviser is talking to past winners and sponsors for their thoughts on the industry.
Ben Mune, founder and principal adviser at Auckland-based Ascend Financial Services, was named "First Mortgage Trust New Adviser of the Year" in 2024. After spending more than five years in commercial banking, Mune transitioned over to advisory services, opening his own firm in 2021. New Zealand Adviser caught up with Mune to find out his best practices, what others can learn from him and what trends he's seeing in the market at the moment.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
NZA: What is the secret to your success? Why do you think you won?
Mune: I think my two greatest strengths and points of difference are my range of services and efficiency. The fact I cover all areas of lending gives me a competitive advantage, as many advisors only focus on one area of lending. Whether it be all your property needs, development, non-bank, business, asset finance or working capital – I can do it. This allows me to capture anyone as a client and increases the average value of a client. For example, I can do their home loans and business asset loans.
In terms of efficiency, I keep meetings to a minimum. Driving around all day and physical meetings are very time consuming. [Then] your emails build up and you're not always available for a call. Instead, I am at my desk most of the time, which allows me to keep my phone calls sharp and to the point. I do emails while on the phone and I am always available to answer calls and emails on the fly, replying instantly most of the time, which results in an excellent service. No one is left anxiously waiting for an update or a call back from me.
NZA: What makes Ascend Financial Services special in the advisory space?
Mune: I am laser-focused on solutions. To me, the point of advisors existing is to find solutions and the best ones available on the market. In order to do that you need to know the market and all of your options, not just some [of your options]. For example, only working with main banks is very limiting. I work with over 60 lenders and make an effort to find every lender out there and know where they play, which gives me a very strong toolbox to be able to solve client’s problems.
It's amazing how often people will say or list what they don’t like about the deal or issues, but then not propose solutions. My brain is in a constant state of, “Okay, here are our challenges. How do we mitigate or get past these points?” And I don’t stop until I get the solution. Persistence is key to success in this industry, as you will experience plenty of roadblocks at every step.
NZA: What can competitors learn from your firm?
Mune: Value your time more than anything else. If you don’t, no one else will. I am ruthless with my time. Every day, review, analyze and refine what you are doing with your time. All your phone calls, all your emails, all your interactions, your processes and how you use the CRM, ask, “How can you make them quicker and to the point without losing your level of service?” All these little things add up to hours. And we only have a handful of hours each day. You can do at least 50% more in a day just by being aware of your time and using every minute as an opportunity to progress deals. If an interaction is not progressing a deal, end it and go to the next activity.
NZA: What are some of your best practices as an adviser? What are you doing as an adviser that others are not doing?
Mune: First, time management. I am very to the point; I have minimum [time] waste in my day. I can come across as blunt, but I think overall people appreciate it as I am valuing their time too. I'm getting people the quickest and best results I can.
Second, source of lead generation. All my business is word of mouth – often through accountants and self-employed people – which means most leads have been well vetted. This increases conversion and reduces time wastage significantly. The selling and trust piece is already done as soon as someone calls you, as it comes from a trusted partner or existing client. I have tried getting leads online before. But these leads [involve] calling around to a bunch of other advisers, who often don't call back. And then you end up wasting time with leads who don't go anywhere, or who use another adviser.
Third, being available. The number of times I hear clients say, “Oh I just couldn’t get hold of them.” Or, “They take a day to reply to their emails,” is a lot more than it should be. We are a fast-paced, personal service-based industry. Speed of response is critical. I get a lot of praise for replying to emails very quickly and always being able to get a hold of and speak to others whenever. I do not leave people waiting. And if I am busy, I will text and say when I can call back. Finance creates enough anxiety for people as it is. Our job is to reduce anxiety and stress for people, not increase it with poor or slow communication.
NZA: As a new adviser, new to the market, how did you get started? How do you begin making contacts?
Mune: I had a very fortunate path to advising. I was at Heartland Bank for five years. Heartland was a good mix of everything. We did commercial and asset finance lending. I find going from commercial to residential is a lot easier than going from residential to commercial. This is what allowed me to be able to provide services across all areas of lending and give me that competitive advantage. I was also able to build up a large network of referrers so that when I started on my own it was seamless and carried on directly from my employed job with referrals coming in day one.
NZA: What kind of advice would you have for advisers who are hoping to be recognized in the year ahead?
Mune: Stand out from the crowd; give it your all. Push every deal that has merit until you get the results [you want]. Focus on efficiency and effectiveness above all else. The person who nails that will win.
NZA: What trends are you seeing in the market at the moment?
Mune: Inquiries are increasing as rates drop. Lenders are starting to take on more risk as the market has bottomed. Therefore, going forward, values should rise, which encourages taking more calculated risk. The stats and economy slowly are recalibrating and turning positive. In summary, a slow and steady recovery and turn of the cycle is underway.
NZA: What are your thoughts on New Zealand's loan and property markets as we enter into the back half of 2025?
Mune: It's scary to be talking about the back half of 2025. It feels like we just celebrated the New Year. I think we are past the pit of the cycle and on a slow incline now, with both activity and prices. Naturally as rates come down, these two [things] will start going up. We can see this already with property reports and bank turnaround times pushing back out. It's not going to be a quick rise in prices, as there are many macro events and other factors at play, such as net migration of New Zealand citizens, which is a big worry. But I feel the market will slowly increase a few percentage points this year. Then, assuming we can stop the outflow of people next year, the market should begin the next cycle properly and start going up 5% to 10% per annum, as it has been over the last several decades. As we know, the world doesn’t seem to like stability, or to sit still. So no doubt many global events will occur over the next few years to shake the trajectory. But you can only deal with what you think will happen and what’s in front of you.
