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Mortgage Link Celebrates 30 Years with Expansion

In the era of instant gratification and season of urgency of change, make sure that what you want for the future of your advice business remains centre stage, says Josh Bronkhorst, CEO of Link Financial Group, the holding company of Mortgage & Insurance Link, Advice Link (the company’s in-house CRM) and FG Link (the company’s Fire & General Insurance business).

“Many advisers are grappling with change right now. An understatement of course. But amidst all the change and the immediate need to ‘get it right’ in this new regime, it’s crucial that advisers keep a firm view on what they want for the future of their advice business.”

“We did the same at Link Financial Group: we took a long-term view on how our group could best serve both Kiwi consumers and financial advisers; to define who we wanted to be as a group in five to 10 years and beyond.

In the same year that the group celebrates 30 years since the launch of its flagship brand, Mortgage Link, it continues to grow its insurance offering through the Insurance Link brand, Fire & General Insurance through the FG Link brand, its software and technology offering through the Advice Link brand and is also paving the way to further expand its advice services in the medium term to include investments through its Invest Link brand.

“It’s been four years since we launched our Mortgage and Insurance CRM, Advice Link. Whilst this has been a massive and sometimes daunting task we now have +- 200 users including administrators. Anyone who operates under our licence is required to use our CRM for audit and file review purposes. Advice Link makes it much easier for advisers to follow a compliant process and also makes it a lot easier for us to assist our advisers through our ongoing file review and audit programme now run through Advice Link,” Bronkhorst says.

“In addition to Mortgage and Insurance, under the Link Financial Group Licence – we will be selectively offering a home to Fire & General and investment advisers,” says Bronkhorst. We realised early on that offering advisers choice would be the most sustainable long-term approach. Advisers who use our brand are required to operate under our FAP licence as Authorised Bodies however advisers who use their own brand are able to utilise our Aggregation services whilst operating under their own licence or the Link FAP licence.

This we believe provides advisers with the flexibility to choose which operating model best suits them and their vision for their business. Advisers operating under their own licence are able to utilise our FAP services including file review and audit services and general compliance support provided they use Advice Link. We recently bolstered our compliance team through the appointment of experienced compliance manager Iwinca D’Souza who now leads a strong compliance support offering.

Whilst Mortgage Link started out as an aggregator offering a home only to advisers who wanted to work under the Mortgage Link brand; Link Financial Group is now also home to more than 100 advisers (both Mortgage and Insurance) who operate their own brands.

“When we sat down to plan the future of the group, helping advisers grow their advice services was top of the priority list. We now support advisers across all areas of advice – Mortgage, Insurance, Fire & General, KiwiSaver and soon investments also. We have created a pathway for those who would like to expand their own offering to their clients to a comprehensive and holistic advice model.”

Since 2015, Link Group adviser numbers have increased from 25 to 200 plus. Over the last six years the company has consistently grown by +- 50% per year; growth Bronkhorst attributes to the group’s unwavering culture of support and progress.

“Our three-decade experience as a group has taught us a lot about how to provide commercially valuable services for advisers, but also the importance of building and nurturing a culture that can be counted on for support. It might sound passé in today’s world, but we continue to pride ourselves on viewing the Link Group as an extended family.” We are often referred to by our lender and insurance partners as the Link family.

“2021 has turned out to yet again be a big year for advisers. And in the busyness and urgency of change, it can be all too easy to let the short term take undue precedence.”

“For those who are still going through the process of defining how they will operate under the new regime, I encourage you to give yourself the opportunity to ensure your decisions are made with both your short-term needs and your long-term goals in mind,” says Bronkhorst. ✚

To find out more about Link Group and licence options for advisers, contact Kelly Brough 027 373 2864 | kelly@mortgagelink.co.nz or Josh Bronkhorst 021 835 506 | josh@lfg.co.nz