Former adviser bucks convention by taking a 'back office' role
While many see mortgage administration as a stepping stone to becoming a broker, Steph Leather (pictured) views it differently – she qualified as a broker first and did the job for years, before taking on an admin role.
Merseyside-based Leather may not have ended up in mortgages at all if she hadn’t been set straight by her mother, who was not prepared to see her sit idle after school. “All my friends were going to university and I knew I didn't want to go,” she told Mortgage Introducer. “My mum said to me, ‘well, don't think you're sitting around all summer if you're not going to uni. You can go and get a job.’ I applied for anything that was in the Liverpool Echo and the first thing that came up happened to be in an IFA’s office.”
As her career progressed, Leather eventually became a mortgage broker. “I worked in various different capacities,” she said. “I started in an estate agent’s, then I moved over to a small, high street-based brokerage in Liverpool where people could just walk in, and then I worked on a self-employed basis. I really did enjoy it - I liked to help people to get on to the property ladder. The only reason that I stopped doing it was because the guy who I was working for at the time, he must have had his own financial issues, he kept paying me late. I had done seven years as a mortgage adviser and then the last straw was this guy not paying me. I just couldn't keep getting paid later and later every month. So I ended up leaving and going into contracting, complaint handling for Deloitte.”
Over the following years, Leather saved enough money to go travelling for 18 months, putting thousands of miles between her and the life she once knew as a mortgage broker (she didn’t miss it, she shared). Back home, she eventually launched her own business – not as a broker, but as a remote mortgage administrator, inspired by a trend for virtual assistants. Entrust Remote Financial Services Assistance provides admin, compliance and operational support to mortgage advisers on a freelance retainer basis. “Everybody asks if I want to come back to advising,” said Leather. “I say ‘no’, that I've done it. I really like doing this. I'm an organised person and I've just always preferred the back office side of things.”
Read more: Mortgage rates war enables brokers to shine for clients
Surviving Liz Truss… and thriving
Entrust began operating in July 2022, barely a couple of months before the infamous mini-budget. “I really panicked, when all the Liz Truss stuff happened,” Leather recalled. “I think I had three clients at that point, so not enough to go sit back and relax. Everything just went crazy and I thought, ‘oh God, if these clients go out of business or rates go so crazy that no clients can get a mortgage, what am I going to do?’ I just thought, well, ‘we’ll just have to see how it goes and review it in six months.’ I thought if I could survive Liz Truss, and I'm still here, then all right.”
In fact, as interest rates rapidly changed and product transfers had to be reworked, it created more administration – Leather survived in business and is thriving today, reporting a strong start to 2025. “I was really surprised - January was really, really busy, across all of my clients, with the Stamp Duty changes coming in April, they were all submitting loads of applications which is really positive. I took the decision about two years ago to build a team of associates. Everybody on the team has either been a mortgage adviser, a mortgage underwriter or a mortgage administrator, sometimes a combination of all three. I essentially subcontract work to them.”
Leather acknowledges the challenges highlighted in a recent Mortgage Introducer interview with administrator Amy Davenport, who spoke of how she had felt disrespected by some brokers and lenders during her career. “I totally understood everything that she said,” Leather commented. “As an employed administrator, I definitely encountered all the issues that she described. However, I don't encounter that as a self-employed business owner offering this as a service. I get nothing but respect from my clients. There's nobody who is dismissive or sees us as ‘just admin’ or, whatever. Obviously, they are the ones making the sales and stuff, but without us driving all of the background information and getting all the cases progressed and processed properly and compliant, then they wouldn’t get paid at the end of the day. They really do appreciate that.”
Having done the role herself, which qualities does Leather think make a good broker?
“I think attention to detail and asking your clients the right questions at the outset,” she said, “and keeping on top of things like the product and dates so you don't leave it until a week before their fixed rate ends, contacting them six months before and giving them time to go through all of their options. Just caring about your clients, you know, so it's not just a tick box exercise. It's really important, especially when people are purchasing their first home - it really does make a huge difference. It's one thing selling the mortgage, but if you're not protecting that mortgage in the event of, God forbid, something terrible happening, then you haven't done your full job.”
