Copy article

Good administration - an overlooked area in the mortgage world?

Journalist: Emma Simon, Mortgage Strategy

ended 17. October 2023


I'm looking for comments for an article for Mortgage Strategy - looking at the role of administrations, at brokers in particular, but also lenders.  - and the important (and sometimes overlooked) role they play. 

  1. How do administrators help ensure mortgages get approved in a timely and efficient fashion?  – Are they essentially completing forms/ fact-finding - or do they have a more important role to play in terms of sourcing relevant deals, giving information to brokers on suitable lenders to use, perhaps even feedback on which lenders are a bit slow on their own administration!?
  2. Is their role particularly important on more complex cases - perhaps in the buy-to-let market, or where there are self-employed earnings or a less than perfect credit record? 
  3. Have the conditions over the past year - where there have been periods where lenders have been pulling deals/ repricing -  highlighted the importance of having good administration, from both brokers and lenders to ensure deals can be secured in a timely fashion?
  4. Has then been more of a focus on this from lenders and brokers recently, or is this still an overlooked part of the mortgage ecosystem? 
  5. Finally,  I was going to ask about the role that packagers / mortgage clubs might play in this market - do they help provide more streamlined administration? Are there particular bits of the market we see packagers play a more important role?

Any other thoughts on administration welcomed. I am hoping to get some thoughts together by early next week -  Tuesday October 18th


 



 

8 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

Editor
Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
A good administration team is worth its weight in gold in my experience, it helps with packaging queries, and ongoing communications with clients, lenders, insurance providers, estate agents and solicitors to allow the broker the time required to deal with providing invaluable advice clients expect of us. Also ensures cases are followed through from application to completion in a timely fashion. We tend not to use packagers as our team can package all cases more efficiently and quicker than any packager can.
Copy

Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
The golden rule of growing a mortgage brokerage when you first start up on your own is that when you get too busy, don't recruit another broker but an admin as they'll help you provide a better service and write more business. A mortgage brokers job doesn't end with getting your offer out but getting the case completed and that where you need an admin to chase and collate updates. Or use a good conveyancer that keeps you in the loop so you don't need to do it all yourselves. Both are worth their weight in gold.
Copy

Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Good self admin is essential. Without it, you just end up being pulled up by compliance every 5 mins and you cant get work done around it. Hired/Employed admin can really help. Even things like the chase up of lenders/providers can take up hours a day, if you can pass that to an admin, they can save you so much time. For example, some of my landlord clients may buy 10 at a time. I do not want to be stuck all day copying files over 10 times. I can do 1 and the admin can do that for me. It means I can stay in front of my clients and be responsive.
Copy

Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Good administration is an essential part of any quality mortgage brokerage, as generally speaking it is a different skill set to that of being a broker and the type of person that is good at one, may not be so great at the other. It therefore makes total sense to have people who play to their strengths support one another. Not only does this make commercial sense, freeing up the brokers to write more business rather than being on hold to a lender for an update, but in my experience it also results in better customer outcomes and more compliant and complete client files. However, whilst there are many training courses, qualifications and support structures to help advisers grow there is a lack of similar things in place for administrators, which is a shame and, I feel, a missed opportunity to drive further efficiency and improve the customer experience.
Copy

Daniel Wyke
Managing Director at Wyke Financial
In our business, we don't use the term administrator. Rather Mortgage and Protection Support Assistant. The administrative role if used correctly is so much more than simple administration.
Any brokerage looking to thrive must have excellent support behind the broker team. If you want to have timely outcomes and brokers who are motivated to sell you need to remove the shackles of the day-to-day.
Mortgage Administration is an ever-varied and unsung role in the mortgage market. Many a firm advertise for brokers stating "admin support provided".
To be an effective broker close relationships with your support team and a solid back office process are essential. Indeed, once advice is given a good adminstrator can progress a case from start to end and further cement the relationship with the client.
The idea that not having admin support saves cost is counterproductive. The extremes of this being a One-man operation that will struggle with capacity when a business starts to grow.
Copy

Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
A good administrator is worth their weight in gold and should be able to do everything after a recommendation has been made.
After the recommendation, the main part of our role is to get the application to offer and see it through to completion. Unless something goes wrong or a change needs to be made to the recommendation this can be done by an administrator, there is no reason that an adviser needs to be on hold to a lender, checking the valuation has been booked, documents received or an offer is being issued.
The advice has to come from the adviser so I believe that we should be conducting the research and then reviewing the details. Unlike paraplanners, administrators are not usually qualified and therefore should not be conducting the research on which we base our advice.
Having an administrator frees up your time to talk to new clients knowing your existing clients are being looked after and updated throughout their journey.
Copy

Hemat Natha
Director at Mortgage Advice Point
Contact me for a full response to all points - can be emailed.
Administrators / Assistants / Paraplanners / Case managers - The real Heros that make things happen.
To deliver service and excellent advice, you need a team. Every single person in that team is essential and important. Arguably it’s the support team is the important component that makes things happen. They are the most respected people in my business.
Our assistants help us be the best we can be for our clients. So, collecting documents, Processing these, interpreting and helping to analyse the documents. Being a first-line defence and asking further questions that are needed from our applicant. We have a highly skilled team. It’s the little things like chasing documents for signatures. Even sending the documents for E-Signing saves time and allows us to be effective in what we do. The amount of functionality that can be handed off I think depends on the size of your business and the make-up of your adviser.
Copy

Sabrina Hall
Mortgage Adviser & Protection Adviser at Kind Financial Services
My administrator is the backbone of my business and essential to a positive client experience which in turn leads to referrals from clients and helps grow my business. The role has become even more essential now due to rate changes and the extra admin that causes. In addition, solicitors' service levels are unpredictable.