Award-winning adviser shares top challenges ahead
As 2024 settles in, mortgage advisers across New Zealand are ready to tackle the year’s unique challenges and capitalise on emerging opportunities. While the industry remains vibrant, several hurdles demand strategic navigation and proactive solutions.
Award-winning mortgage adviser Cameron Muggeridge (pictured above), from Loan Market Central, sheds light on three key priorities for his fellow professionals in the coming year.
1. Managing client expectations in an information age
Clients today are armed with readily available information, allowing them to form pre-conceived notions about the mortgage process, rates, and lenders. As Muggeridge noted, “with technology at everyone’s fingertips, and people talking more openly about finance, information is very easy to gather for clients.”
While this increased awareness can streamline certain aspects, it can also lead to unrealistic expectations and potential conflict.
Advisers must excel at setting clear expectations from the outset, outlining timelines, borrowing limitations, and realistic interest rates, said Muggeridge, who is an excellence awardee in the NZFSG Adviser of the Year - Residential category at this year’s NZ Mortgage Awards.
“Overcoming this and setting expectations can be difficult,” he continued, “and sometimes regardless of setting timelines, ceilings on borrowing ability and expected rates, clients can be unhappy with the end result.”
For his clients, Muggeridge said open communication is a “crucial focus” this year, as it helps avoid client dissatisfaction and potential reputational damage.
“Without firmly setting expectations it can cause room for miscommunication and a perception of bad business procedure and harming your business reputation in the long run.”
2. Embracing policy shifts as opportunities
Instead of focusing on potential concerns surrounding the recent policy changes to the bright-line test and debt-to-income ratios, Muggeridge sees them as a significant opportunity.
He said clients and referral partners rely on your expertise to navigate these complexities and make informed decisions, rather than reacting impulsively to media headlines.
“Policies and legislation changes can create a massive opportunity for advisers... Our business seems to be seeing quite an uplift in inquiries, which could be caused by confidence in the new government. It’s hard to confirm exactly what is causing this,” he said.
“This can be a great opportunity to add value to your existing and new relationships to potentially further your business.”
However, by the same token, uncertainty around these changes could cause clients to lose faith in your knowledge and skill.
“This is why it’s so important to keep up to date on legislation as well as any global events that might impact you,” he said.
3. Balancing time management and exceptional service
Delivering exceptional service, managing referral relationships, keeping pace with policy changes, and liaising with banks – all while ensuring accessibility to clients – can be a constant struggle for advisers, especially during periods of increased inquiries.
According to Muggeridge, the challenge lies in finding the right balance.
“Do you turn away business, and other opportunities as you don’t wish to take on staff and don’t have the capacity for the work? Or do you take on staff and deal with training, managing them and trust they deliver on the expectations you set with clients?” he said.
“Ultimately, it is a personal decision on how you manage your time.”
By not acting on the above circumstances, Muggeridge said it could cause significant harm to a business’s reputation if not handled correctly.
“By acknowledging these challenges and implementing effective strategies, mortgage advisers can not only overcome these hurdles but also leverage them as opportunities for growth and success in the year ahead,” he said.
What do you think of Muggeridge’s list? Comment below.
