A Women in Mortgage Summit panel will tackle the client conversations Canadian brokers find hardest right now
The question Canadian mortgage brokers are asking each other most in 2026 is not about rates. It is about trust — specifically, how to hold a conversation with a buyer who is hesitant, overwhelmed, or convinced that waiting is the sensible choice.
On September 24, the Women in Mortgage Summit Canada will address that question head-on in one of its most practitioner-focused sessions of the day: "The Client Conversations That Actually Build Your Business — What's Working Right Now."
The session is a Power Panel scheduled for the afternoon programme at the International Centre in Toronto.
The summit runs as a dedicated one-day event alongside MortgageFest Canada, the two-day industry expo that is expected to draw more than 2,000 mortgage professionals from across the country.
A Women in Mortgage Summit pass includes full access to both days of MortgageFest Canada.
The panel was built from a direct survey of mortgage professionals about the client conversations they find genuinely difficult. That process — asking practitioners what they are struggling with, then programming a session around those answers — is what distinguishes this session from generic communication advice.
Read more: MortgageFest Canada 2026: what brokers can expect
What the conversation is really about
Three panellists will work through the scenarios brokers encounter most in the current environment.
Jamie Doolittle, head of BMO BrokerEdge in Canada, brings a lender perspective on what clients need to hear when they stall.
Tracy Valko, co-founder and managing partner of DLC AIMI Mortgage Collective Group, a Dominion Lending Centres network brokerage, contributes more than two decades of front-line experience with clients navigating the gap between aspiration and action.
Michelle Campbell, a mortgage broker at Mortgage Architects — A Better Way in Canada, moderates.
The session will cover four scenarios drawn from what brokers said they find hardest right now. First is what to actually say when clients tell you they are waiting — without the exchange becoming transactional or pressured.
From there, the panel moves to staying connected after a file closes, structuring conversations around life events so clients call their broker before they call their bank, and building the kind of long-term trust that outlasts any single renewal cycle.
Beyond rates and renewals
The panel's most consequential angle may be the one least often discussed in formal training: the life-event conversation.
When a client's circumstances change, such as marriage, a new child, an inheritance, a job loss, the broker who already has a relationship built on more than rate-shopping is the one who gets the call.
The session is designed to help mortgage professionals develop the habits and language that make them that broker.
Read more: Breaking through, building forward: women reshaping Canadian mortgage finance
A day built around the conversations that matter
The Client Conversations panel is one of three Power Panels on the September 24 programme. It is scheduled from 1:50 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., following an AI workflow session in the early afternoon and preceding a fireside chat on building a business for long-term value.
The day opens at 8:55 a.m. with a keynote from Rola Dagher, a transformational leadership speaker and former president and chief executive officer of Cisco Canada, who began her career in Bell's telemarketing department after arriving in Canada as a young refugee.
Leah Zlatkin, chief operating officer of Mortgage Outlet Inc. in Toronto, chairs the day.
The summit is presented by Canadian Mortgage Professional and is designed specifically for women leading in the Canadian mortgage and finance sector. Registration is open at womeninmortgage.ca.
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