Whilst none of us really knows what the future holds, that’s not a good enough reason to continue ploughing the same furrow and presuming that the world isn’t going to change over the next few years. Those of us who work in financial services should know that better than anyone.
Mortgage advisers have experienced much significant, enforced change over the past few years. But you don’t just have to let change happen – engineering change puts you back in control of your own career and of your own future.
At Domvs Financial Services we believe that mortgage advisers and firms delivering mortgage advice need to envision a new way of doing things. Why shouldn’t mortgage advisers be able to build a value in their business in the same way that IFAs do? By operating outside their normal boundaries, i.e. mortgages, protection and general insurance, they can do just that. Of course, regulation dictates that they can only advise on certain products and we’d never suggest they do otherwise. However, mortgage advisers encounter clients every single day whose needs extend way beyond the provision of a mortgage, and buildings and contents insurance. What do they currently do about those needs? Ignore them, refer them to a colleague or even to another business perhaps?
In our eyes, that new client is the mortgage adviser’s client. By working – in the same firm – with other appropriately qualified advisers the mortgage adviser can deliver a complete financial advice service. The mortgage adviser effectively becomes an account manager who can build value in his or her own business by jointly developing the pension and investment elements of the client’s financial planning needs.
The abused term of ‘wrap’
More and more clients are becoming exposed to a service-based proposition centred around technology under the much abused term of ‘wrap’. The overall client relationship can be developed through effective use of a back office system with the mortgage adviser being responsible for managing the relationship. In this way, the mortgage adviser can start to benefit from fees, renewals and servicing income generated through funds under management on a platform. The delivery of a slick service proposition for clients will also ensure that the mortgage adviser benefits from a stronger relationship with the client, which should ensure that they can advise on the client’s future mortgage and protection needs.
A dependency upon leads
This joint service based approach will help mortgage advisers to move away from their dependency upon purchased leads and the purely transactional approach to property related business. The building of relationships through overall financial planning – with an account manager based approach – can only lead to increased repeat business, which in turn will provide the mortgage adviser with increased long term revenue and capital value.
Of course, this departure from the norm can’t happen overnight and the success of this approach depends upon a number of factors:
• the firm’s ability to be forward thinking and adopt a new way of doing things
• the advisers too have to be prepared to take a different approach
• complete trust between the advisers
• technology – improved technology which encompasses all the firm’s needs
What I am suggesting is not a commission club masquerading as a Network with no genuine compliance proposition except a manual and a helpline. It’s a new approach – one which we are embracing at Domvs. We are aiming to provide an opportunity for those advisers who are capable of developing and running their own business, but who recognise the value of doing so within a model that provides a genuinely supportive framework. And to enable competent professionals to develop their client bank and to build a funds under management model which will dramatically transform the long-term value of their business.
So, if you are thumbing through the recruitment pages this week, take a minute to think about the type of role you want and the type of company you want to work for. And most importantly, try and envision what the future might hold for the industry.
