Inter Alliance today sent out registration forms for its planned mortgage club to around 400 of its qualified mortgage advisers. The intermediary’s mortgage referral service went live last week.
The club, The Mortgage Alliance, is a joint venture with Scottish Provident, but will be branded under the Inter Alliance banner. It has a panel of over 20 lenders, including Halifax, Nationwide and Cheltenham & Gloucester.
Janine Menasakanian heads up the club. She said: ‘We have never had a mortgage proposition before and many of our advisers go through other clubs or refer business to other advisers.’ Although she said the club would initially be for Inter Alliance advisers only, she said considerations to roll it out were underway, although no timetable had been set. Those using the club will also be given free access to the Trigold sourcing system, and various exclusive products.
Stuart Wilson, mortgage development director for Inter Alliance, heads the referral business, Inter Alliance Mortgages Ltd. It will provide for all Inter Alliance advisers who do not want to process mortgage business. He said advisers would be paid up to £250 per case (name and contact number) they referred, which compared more than favourably with fees of up to £400 they might make for eight to ten hours processing a case themselves. Although around 70% of advisers did not want to take on mortgage business, he said that the referral payments would prove an attractive proposition. He said the referral service would only deal with mortgages, and so advisers would not lose the surround business of providing the clients with other financial products.
The referral service will be run by what was mortgage.com, a company set up by Wilson in May 2000 and bought by Inter Alliance in December last year. It comprises eight staff based in Gloucester, and further recruitment will take place as is necessary. Wilson said: ‘We are rolling the service out to the 17 regions Inter deals in, incorporating over 1000 agents, and are in the process of telling them what we do and providing them with information through regional presentations.’
He said: ‘In 18 months, I aim to be the biggest mortgage vehicle in the industry.’ He added: ‘There will be a mass sea change in the distribution market. Lenders have no clear vision of their distribution networks and there are no true statistics on the number of advisers with many retiring or deciding to quit the market.’ He said the critical mass Inter Alliance would be able to bring would be an attractive proposition for lenders.
