Advisor/broker career advice

Griff001

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum and just have a couple of questions if you'd be kind enough to help me out!

I've been working as a mortgage specialist for a bank for 6 years now, and I want to take my career further. I definitely feel that I'd like to go down the advisor route as I think my skillset would suit the career choice.

My main question is, with all the up and coming changes and the RDR etc, is there still a market for new mortgage advisors? I obviously have experience working with mortgages, and I'm good with customers and I'm decent with the sales side of things, and if it was the right route to go down, I could pass my CeMap exams fairly quickly.

I just don't want to go ahead and pay for my CeMaps and take the time to complete them, if I'm going to struggle to get a job at the end of it. I'd ideally like to start as a trainee for a bank or another organisation, and learn the trade that way, but I'm just worried that with the RDR changes, that the CeMap qualification may become close to useless and it turns out that I would've been better off completing a whole financial diploma and gone down that route.

So would someone that knows a bit more about the subject than me be able to give me a little bit of advice if possible? Thanks in advance

Jimbo1976

I would not worry quite as much about RDR (which mainly affects pensions and investment provision) as the Mortgage Market Review.

At present lenders can sell mortgages on a non advised basis. I am not sure if this is what you are doing now? However on 26th April 2014 that will change and lenders will have to provide advice on any "interactive" sale.

This may force some lenders to change their business models, some may decide to exit the market, some may choose to retrain all their staff to offer mortgages on an advised basis.

Any ideas what yours is going to do? It may be that it will need to put you all through CeMAP anyway.

There will always be jobs for good advisers. But I cannot see the mortgage market being anything other than a tough place to work for the forseeable future.

Griff001

Yeah we all work on a non-advice basis at the moment, and the company are currently figuring out how to deal with the changes, whether they put us all through CeMap, or whether they can just get away with a scripted process etc.

My thinking is that I'd quite like to try and get ahead of the game, and get myself qualified before these changes come in, although I'm not sure how much difference that would make? If they put us through CeMap, I can't see us getting a payrise, so I'm sure that if I was to leave for a certain amount of time after qualifying, I would probably have to pay the company back for the courses anyway, or else I'm sure every agent here would probably leave straight away anyway! haha.

It's almost a bit of a catch 22 situation at the moment, stick and wait and see what happens, or twist and take the plunge and just go for it off my own back.

Thanks for getting back to me!

ACG

MMR (Not RDR) will not affect the qualifications youll need - either way if you have exerience you shouldnt worry too much about them. I passed my exams having only purchased a house and working for a life office.

MMR appears to be helping brokers, so it should improve everything going forward.

Good luck with it, ive been self employed for about 18 months and whilst it is hard - there can be weeks even months at the beginning where you go without earning anything or you have a clawback from insurance which just make you think what am i doing in this profession - but its the best job ive had, i love it.

Griff001

Ah thanks ACG, that's great to hear. I am looking forward to working on an advice basis, it's definitely the logical progression for me.

I just hope that the market doesn't become flooded with advisors after the MMR, if companies are putting their employees through CeMap qualifications independently, I hope that this doesn't mean that there is an influx of advisors looking for better roles than the basic customer service roles that they are currently in (essentially my situation, haha)

Hopefully my skills and experience will stand me in good stead though.

Jimbo1976

If they put you through CeMAP so you can give advice if this is required for your role, I don't see how they could claw this back if you left.

dunstonh

The biggest issue for mortgage brokers from a recruitment point of view are the number of FAs/IFAs that decide not to go with RDR and drop down to mortgage and insurance only. I know three IFAs that have dropped to mortgage/insurance in the last month. FSA are looking at figures around the 20% mark. Not all will drop to mortgage/insurance. Some will call it a day. However, that is quite an influx of mortgage advisers potentially at a time when the market is still depressed. That said, many of those ex IFAs/FAs may have been mostly mortgage anyway. So, a regulatory change of name on them may not make any difference at all.

An IFA/FA brings clients with them. That is what attracts an employer.

Conrad

I'll go out of my way to urge my children neverto bother with this business. I make a very good living but thats only because I've been going a long time.

Far far better sectors to invest your future in.

Almost every older broker I know has bad health which I'm fairly sure is down to latent ongoing stress. 1 minute you've arranged 3 juicy deals, the next they go wrong / people change thier minds etc. This doesn't affect me much as I insist on up front fees but many brokers really struggle with the roller coaster ride and uncertainty.

Griff001

Well there has been training required in the past, and they specified that if an employee left within 12 months of completing the training, they were charged a fee for it. Not sure if they're allowed to do this or not!...but they did. I'm worried they would do the same again, or else I could see a mass exodus of staff once qualified, as we aren't paid anywhere near what a basic mortgage advisor would be paid elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the company are keeping very schtum on all this at the moment, won't even say whether we will be completing CeMap's at all yet. Makes it very difficult to try and plan a career around I must say!

Griff001

Conrad wrote: »

I'll go out of my way to urge my children neverto bother with this business. I make a very good living but thats only because I've been going a long time.

Far far better sectors to invest your future in.

Almost every older broker I know has bad health which I'm fairly sure is down to latent ongoing stress. 1 minute you've arranged 3 juicy deals, the next they go wrong / people change thier minds etc. This doesn't affect me much as I insist on up front fees but many brokers really struggle with the roller coaster ride and uncertainty.

Thanks for your reply. I've been working in financial roles for 10 years now, it's where I have my experience, it's what I feel I'm good at. I've already tried a change in career completely, it didn't work out at all.

I do appreciate it's a hard sector to work in, but I think it's still probably the best route for me personally.

koexelek

Conrad wrote: »

I'll go out of my way to urge my children neverto bother with this business. I make a very good living but thats only because I've been going a long time.

Far far better sectors to invest your future in.

Indeed. Think I'd rather my kids went into the door to door selling of Betamax video cassette tapes than joining this business:D