Jessica Darnbrough
Mono-line providers will soon become extinct, one industry stakeholder has claimed.
Liberty Financial’s national sales manager, John Monacheff, told The Adviser that those who do not diversify run the risk of becoming a thing of the the past.
“Being a mono-line provider is like running the road to extinction,” he said. “Unless you are a government utility that has a monopoly, you have to diversify.”
According to Mr Monacheff, there are plenty of “easy” opportunities for brokers to diversify.
“Every time a broker writes a home loan, they could write a car loan as well – it is just that easy,” he said.
Mr Monacheff, however, is not the first person to argue mono-line providers will soon become extinct.
Earlier this year, ING DIRECT’s Lisa Claes said the term 'mortgage broker' may become redundant as the industry becomes increasingly diversified.
“I think there will be a gradual homogenisation of the third party adviser,” Ms Claes said.
“In the future I’m not even sure the industry will continue to be called mortgage brokers in the sense that more will diversify their financial service offering than has been the case historically.”
According to Ms Claes, ING DIRECT is already seeing a greater number of brokers look to diversify their core offering away from residential mortgage products.
“On our books, we are seeing an increasing number of brokers diversifying. And, of that increasing amount, we are seeing that an increasing proportion of their business is no longer coming from mortgages. As per our own data, of those that diversify, up to 40 per cent of their revenue is coming from non-mortgage products,” she said.