Mortgage brokers: an emerging threat to your business?

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An army of 11,000 mortgage brokers have been commanded by their industry association to grab a slice of the wealth protection market.

According to the MFAA’s Home Finance Index, a national survey of 1,423 people across Australia shows cross-selling presents an untapped opportunity for mortgage brokers, with only 31.2% of respondents being offered life insurance when they took out a home loan.

The conversion rates among those offered insurances shows there is a strong opportunity for cross-selling according to the MFAA – with 34.1% taking up home protection insurance when it was offered, for example.

With nearly 11,000 MFAA mortgage brokers, there is a large market to challenge risk-focused financial advisers.

“The survey shows that mortgage brokers continue to enjoy a huge opportunity in cross-selling insurance products, with both young and mature borrowers showing they are open to opportunities to protect themselves,” said CEO of the MFAA, Phil Naylor.

Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager, Third Party and Mobile Banking, Kathy Cummings said CommBank encourages brokers to cross-sell non-home loan products.

“We have developed the CONNECT Referral Program which rewards brokers for the successful sales and referrals of a range of financial products including insurances,” said Cummings.

“Through CONNECT brokers can protect their customers’ assets and lifestyle by recommending them to specialist providers of financial, insurance and risk products.”

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  • Rod m on 25/10/2012 3:51:08 PM

    Well said Peter T , you are a credit to your industry , it is a pity that more do not share your positive approach. It is sad we have such a dog eat dog mentality with many in the market place. Bit like our Industry super funds and Union's trying to bully everyone else out of the market.
    Professional Mortgage Brokers and Financial Planners will survive to look after the needs of their clients no matter what Mr Shorten and his cronies do.

  • Peter T on 25/10/2012 12:25:48 PM

    As a mortgage broker with some planning and risk background I can assure you it's not the bug bear this article makes it out to be. The risk advice is quite limited and it should be very easy for a decent advisor to demonstrate a superior offering if need by. Whilst a large number of brokers have been accreditied with various vendors offering risk, the actual sales rates are not significant.
    My suggestion would be that neither indiustry should try to be everything to everyone. Planners often seem to think that mortgage broking is a simple and straight forward task that involves little more than filling in an application form. Brokers think planners simply make recommendations that only loose money for clients. Both are wrong.
    The better solution would be for both groups to work together. Good finance structures can lead to more opportunities for good investment advice.

  • Consultant on 25/10/2012 10:59:56 AM

    Good luck with that it needs to be a formal strategic alliance for it to work

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