Brokers divided over client ownership

The remainder of the 250 respondents were firmly divided over whether the broker, or nobody, owns the client, with 50 per cent and 42.6 per cent respectively.

Speaking with The Adviser, Tony Bice of Finance Made Easy said he was surprised that even one broker thought the aggregator or lender owned the client.

“So there are a few brokers out there who after generating a lead, working and turning it into a client, sourcing the right product, going through the application process and writing the loan, still believe the aggregator or the lender owns the client? All I can say is there are some very misguided people in the industry," he said.

“If the lender owned the client, then why do they pay a commission trail? They pay the broker a trail to continue the relationship with the client – if they owned the client, there would be no need to pay the broker anything.”

Mr Bice, who claimed he is still paying five per cent of his trail to a previous aggregator after leaving them years ago, said the notion that an aggregator owns the client is ridiculous.

“They claim that because they co-sourced the client they should get a cut of the commission. But I can tell you right now there is not one aggregator in the country who helps source individual leads or assists in origination,” he said.

However, one of the respondents to the poll, Tessa, said nobody should own the client.

“I believe the customer has the right to choose to whom they wish to belong. It is not up to us to dictate to the client.

“After all, the customer is a person and not a number – we work for them,” she said.

Veteran broker Tony Jakeman told The Adviser his aggregator tried to tell him they owned his clients – so he walked.

“I have been broking since 1980 and these days use an aggregator purely to collect my brokerages and to comply with compliance issues …  There are no records of my clients on my aggregator’s database to ensure they remain 'my clients',” he said.

Mr Jakeman, who holds his own credit licence and lodges his applications directly to the lenders, agreed the broker owns the client.

“In my opinion, if you are self-employed and have your own ACN then the clients are yours. If you receive a remuneration of any sort and work under someone else's ACN then the clients belong to the ACN holder,” he said.

A recent article sparked debate over the concept of client ownership, with many respondents claiming it was the business owner who should retain the client if a previous loan writer were to leave that organisation.

“So the principal, who has spent a lot of money purchasing a client, uses a mortgage broker to satisfy those clients and then the broker thinks he can have them when he leaves?” asked one commenter.

“This is why relationships never work with brokers – they are there to service the client, enjoy the commission, and if they leave, then let them spend the thousands I'd spend and purchase their own.”