Rural New Zealanders deserve better than walking into a bank
Most career stories begin with a plan. Claire Williamson's (pictured) begins with the opposite.
Returning from overseas at the end of 2015 with no clear direction, Williamson took an admin role in a friend's mortgage business — a stop-gap, she assumed, until something better came along. It didn't need to. Ten years later, she is a director of My Mortgage, a 2026 New Zealand Mortgage Awards Excellence Awardee, leading a team of 16 and expanding into broader financial services.
Falling in love with the problem
What kept Williamson in the industry wasn't the mechanics of lending — it was the human dimension underneath it. The cases that stay with her aren't the straightforward approvals but the difficult ones: complex scenarios that demanded creative problem-solving, deep policy knowledge, and the right networks.
"The ones that stick with me are the tight, 'right on the line' scenarios where we've had to problem solve, pull on networks, or delve deep into policy to get the right result,” she says. “Those clients are always the ones who are out singing our praises and are also so satisfying for the team as we are truly adding value."
That observation shapes her view of what good advising actually is. Getting the loan approved matters, but it's the wraparound support — the clarity, the communication, the sense that someone is genuinely in your corner — that clients remember and talk about. Which makes it all the more striking that so many New Zealanders still don't have access to that support at all.
The New Zealanders still walking into a bank alone
Ask Williamson about the industry's biggest challenge and she doesn't hesitate: accessibility, and specifically the gap between the independent mortgage advice available to urban borrowers and what's on offer for people in rural and regional communities across New Zealand.
"There are still so many New Zealanders — especially in rural and regional areas — who don't have a mortgage adviser in their corner. They're walking into a bank and taking whatever they're given," she says.
Technology helps with reach, she acknowledges, but she's careful not to over-rely on it as the solution. The real answer, in her view, is advisers building genuine community presence — showing up, being visible, earning trust over time. It's the same principle she gives to anyone starting out in the industry: get in front of people, build real relationships, and understand that visibility is what converts.
The long game
Williamson’s advice to new advisers is grounded in hard-won experience rather than theory.
Knowing bank policy is necessary but nowhere near sufficient — the hardest part of the business, she argues, is generating leads and getting people to engage in the first place. Find a mentor who tells you the truth, she adds. Stay humble. Appreciate the investment others are making in you. And above all, resist the instinct to measure progress too soon.
"Realise it's a long game — you will not be an overnight success, and it will take a lot of long, hard work. Consistency pays dividends," Williamson says.
It's advice that lands differently coming from someone who didn't set out to build a career in this industry — and who built one of the more compelling ones going around.
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