Majority of top brokers don’t pay referral commissions: poll

The Adviser recently surveyed the country’s elite business writers and found that 68 per cent do not give or receive commissions for referral business. A further 28 per cent said they had a financial arrangement with "some" of their partners, while the remaining four per cent had a payment system with all of their referrers.

Despite this, the survey revealed that brokers have the odds stacked in their favour. More than 60 per cent of the surveyed brokers admitted that “my referral partners give me more business than I give them”. Only 12.5 per cent gave more business to their referral partners than they received in return and the remaining 25 per cent said it was an even split.

Leteisha Pileggi from Mortgage Choice said she doesn’t pay her referral partners for their business, so she needs to ensure they have reasons to keep coming back to her.

“There has to be a mutual benefit from both sides,” she said. “To make it work you need to find out what they want from the arrangement. There are a lot of brokers who do pay for leads, so if that is all you’re offering, they will switch to a broker who pays more if the opportunity arises.

“Service is the key. If they are endorsing you, it is a reflection on them and their business so you need to know how they operate and what they want.”