Industry bodies must lift broker profile

Speaking to The Adviser, Liberty Network Services Brendan O’Donnell said the FBAA and MFAA need to be a lot more visible in the consumer space and should spend more time educating potential entrepreneurs on what the third party distribution channel is all about.

“There are career expos for university and high school students all the time and the MFAA should be visible at all of these. They should have stands at those events and speak to the youth about the benefits of being a broker,” he said.

Mr O’Donnell went on to say that mortgage broking is a great profession and there are plenty of opportunities for young people coming into the industry.

“If you compare mortgage broking to many other small businesses, the overheads are limited. While managing cash flow for the first six months is a challenge, the returns over the long term are there,” he said.

“We are telling new recruits joining us that now is a great time to get into the industry because once the environment changes and credit growth returns, they will be well placed to benefit from that.”

Mr O’Donnell’s comments come just days after the MFAA warned us of a growing shortage of young people entering the mortgage and finance broking profession.

Research of the MFAA’s membership shows that the proportion of its membership under the age of 30 years has almost halved, from 11 per cent to 6 per cent over the last two years.

Today, only 19 per cent of new members in the association are under 30 years of age.

Meanwhile, the data shows that the percentage of mortgage and finance brokers over 50 years of age has grown from 27 per cent to 37 per cent.

“We are very concerned about the low levels of young people entering the profession and are making representations to the federal government for the establishment of a traineeship program suited to a contractor model, which mostly applies in this sector,” MFAA chief executive Phil Naylor said.