Aggregator reports strong growth in broker numbers

Choice also said its settlements jumped 128 per cent to $12.5 billion during the period after it recorded the first billion-dollar month in its history, in October 2013.

Chief executive Stephen Moore said the feedback from brokers is that they want Choice to help them use digital technology to improve their businesses.

"What we've seen is a really big jump in demand for social media support," Mr Moore told The Adviser.

"There are two areas that members say they want help in: content development and best practice advice – what's the best way to embed social media in their business and ensure that it's not just an overhead and has the ability to generate revenue."

Mr Moore said Choice has also been holding successful benchmarking and education sessions to help its brokers learn best practice from each other.

"In any given week, we run in excess of 100 peer-to-peer sessions across the country," he said.

"We bring like-minded individuals together who are keen to better understand a specific topic – it might be social media or construction lending – and we organise an expert in that particular topic to be there as well to share their experience."

Mr Moore added that Choice brokers are very optimistic about 2015.

According to an internal survey, 71 per cent of respondents forecast that business would be better next year, while not one broker thought it would be worse, he said.

[Related: Choice named Aggregator of the Year]