The appointment is the culmination of the broker's decision to remain an appointed representative of Legal & General.
Aged 38, Michelle brings to the role a wealth of experience in the property and financial services markets. Having worked her way through the ranks in a local estate agency, Michelle managed the financial services operation of a 13 branch estate agent before joining Mortgage Talk in 2001. Since joining Mortgage Talk, Michelle has been responsible for the generation of new business among the broker's network of franchised agents and, more recently, has headed up a team of development managers.
Her latest role represents a re-emphasis by Mortgage Talk managing director Andrew Frankish on the core elements of the company's central mortgage sales business. "Michelle's promotion is a restatement of our principal business strength of managing franchised advisers to provide advice to customers on the best mortgage product for their circumstances. This high profile appointment enables us to move forward with our key business strategy, following on from last October's mortgage day,' states Frankish.
"Mortgage day created issues for us all in the industry, and it has taken us all a little time to absorb the implications of the new regime. Mortgage Talk had originally considered becoming directly authorised, but have recently agreed to remain Appointed Representative of Legal & General. We have been very impressed with L&G's commitment to their network since M Day, and have benefited from their systems and support. As a result of fully digesting these industry changes, certain roles have been covered elsewhere and two redundancies have followed. However, this makes us even stronger in our core offerings, with a structure that now offers one sales manager for twelve advisors," adds Frankish.
"Ultimately, our franchisees' core business is arranging mortgages, not dealing with endless paperwork. For Mortgage Talk this means we have to refocus our attentions to sales," he concludes.
