Reardon reflects on lessons from a family's first home
Kyle Reardon (pictured), a mortgage adviser at Loan Market, once worked with a multigenerational family who believed homeownership was out of reach after a lifetime of renting. Working with the family's adult children, he helped structure lending that accounted for each person's contribution and future plans, with legal professionals involved throughout.
The family ultimately purchased a home together.
"Sometimes the opportunity only becomes visible when you take the time to understand the whole family and what they are trying to achieve," Reardon says.
Reardon's own definition of good advice was shaped by cases like this one, which is why he warns against reducing the profession to loan processing as lending complexity continues to grow.
Same client, different outcomes
Reardon pointed to inconsistency across lenders as evidence that expertise matters beyond finding the lowest advertised rate.
"Two lenders can review the same client and reach quite different conclusions," he says.
"There is a significant difference between processing a loan and providing strategic mortgage advice. Processing looks at the transaction in front of you. Advice considers where the client wants to be in five or 10 years."
A call for closer lender-adviser collaboration
Instead of pointing to regulatory change, Reardon said the industry's response should focus on education, technology, and stronger support systems, alongside better cooperation between advisers and lenders.
"Closer collaboration between advisers and lenders would also help," he says. "Better communication around policy changes and more consistent processes would allow advisers to spend less time navigating avoidable friction and more time advising clients."
He said the goal should be keeping complexity manageable for clients rather than eliminating it.
"The ultimate solution is to keep the client at the centre," Reardon says. "Complexity is not necessarily a bad thing if the client has someone capable of translating it into a clear and practical plan."
Building trust over chasing rates
For new advisers, Reardon said the same principle applies.
"Do not build your value around being the person who finds the cheapest rate," he says. "Build it around being the person clients trust to help them make better decisions."
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