Broker hits $1bn settlement mark

Mr Wright has secured over $100 million in paid settlements annually for the last three years, and secured a total of $132 million in the 2021 financial year.

This marked a 28 per cent increase year-on-year.

Mr Wright compared his paid settlements values to the average value of loan settlements per broker in Australia for the first six months to September 2020, which was around $6.5 million (around $13 million annually), according to the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia’s (MFAA) Industry Intelligence Service Report 11th edition.

Mr Wright began his career with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), where he spent a decade as a mobile lender and business analyst.

He switched to mortgage broking in April 2002 and focused on residential lending. After operating as an independent mortgage broking business under Choice Aggregation Services for several years, Mr Wright took on the Choice Home Loans brand in 2012, before joining the MoneyQuest network as a franchise owner in December 2017.

Speaking about his milestone, Mr Wright said that he would attribute it primarily to remaining attentive to his clients’ needs and communicating regularly with his 6,000-strong client base.

He said: “Taking care of our clients has always been our number one priority. Underpromising and overdelivering is really important, as is delivering what you’ve said you’re going to deliver. We haven’t chased a huge amount of referral sources; we have instead focused our energy on providing 6-star service to our clients.

“We learned early in the piece that staying in touch with your clients is also crucial. Since first starting the business, we have always carried out annual reviews and regularly sent out correspondence, whether it be in the form of a letter, a newsletter, a magazine or a birthday gift.

“We don’t just do it occasionally, we do it consistently, and this consistency has resulted in client loyalty, which means we now get 90 per cent of our business referred to us by clients, or those clients come back.”

Mr Wright – who won the Regional Broker of the Year Award at the 2020 Australian Broking Awards – emphasised to The Adviser last year in the Elite Broker podcast that the mark of good customer service is when a client is willing to refer their acquaintances, family and friends to the broker.

Mr Wright added that he values self-education, and as such, read about property investment every night for five years, and eventually obtained a property investment adviser qualification.

“Having this extra string to my bow has been a major differential,” he said.

“We receive a lot of enquiries from clients regarding investments, and the benefit of this is, I can provide advice, and then we write the loans. They are generally good-sized transactions and investors transact more regularly, so educating myself in this space has helped our business to grow.”

Commenting on how he managed to maintain loan settlement levels during the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Wright attributed it to his team’s ability to adapt to new technology, and employing offshore staff members.

He said: “Our business was already set up to operate online, and our staff were able to adapt to new technology rather quickly.

“We also put on some offshore staff to follow up loan applications and carry out data entry, which freed up our staff in Australia and allowed them to focus on our clients.”

MoneyQuest Australia managing director Michael Russell commended Mr Wright for his achievement, adding that MoneyQuest Wollongong is currently averaging $20 million per month in settled loans, up almost 100 per cent in the past three years, which he said is “testament to Paul’s work ethic and leadership skills”.

“I have known Paul and have had the pleasure of working alongside him, on and off, since 2002,” Mr Russell said.

“He was always destined to achieve this amazing milestone for he embodies everything our customers hope to receive – absolute professionalism, and a genuine care for their wellbeing.”

[Related: Broker surpasses $1-billion settlement milestone]