Speaking to this publication, Charlotte Nixon (pictured) said that the network was “here to grow” and had been adding to its team in recent months to do that.

This included two dedicated mortgage and protection recruiters, who would look at growing the network.

She said: “I think we have been perceived as a wealth-focused network, and that’s never been the case. We’ve always had a very strong mortgage focus with over £20bn on average lending each year.

“I think it’s for us to change that perception and that we are the home of advisers, whether it is starting out with mortgages and protection. We have got more of a support team now. We’ve got a dedicated distribution team that falls under my remit, so they are aligned to all of the firms helping them understand their growth plans and everything they need in regards to support.

“We are there to be the partner if they want to then grow and develop their business into other areas, albeit where it is wealth, I think it should complement each other, mortgage and protection as well as wealth.”

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Nixon said that it wanted to be the “home for the right type of advisers”, adding that “it’s not a numbers game”.

She said it was not about “moving firms from network to network”, it was about helping firms achieve “organic growth”.

“We can work with you [with] whatever type of business model that you may have, but we can help you grow into other areas and develop your business and we’ve got the backing and the insight from Quilter Financial Planning to do that.

“We can be flexible and work with a number of different firms, so we don’t have [to] pigeonhole firms and businesses into different areas. We can be holistic in how we support them,” Nixon said.

She noted that it was seeing more of its existing firms wanting to bring in new advisers, which is something the network can help with.

“It’s growing our existing firms and helping them develop their plans, as well as bringing new advisers into the network,” Nixon explained.

Key broker challenges are regulation, productivity and retention

Nixon said that the “ever-changing landscape” of regulation would present a key challenge for advisers.

She said that this was why it was “crucial to work with a partner that can kind of take away that heavy lifting”.

“It takes away the focus of seeing clients and providing that advice when they have to then provide that regulation activity and the work that’s required there,” Nixon noted.

She added that adviser activity meant that advisers were “busier than ever, but they’re probably not as productive as what they can be”, but this is where support in the form of training, technology and recruitment by the network played its role.

“The landscape that we see with networks and providers and lenders, but also from advisory firms, I think it can make people question if this [is] the industry they want to be in, which ultimately then could reduce the number of adviser firms that we’ve got.

“That will be a huge challenge, and one that we’re tackling head-on with the academy, and driving that forward and bringing new people in,” Nixon said.

Regarding the academy, Nixon said that it was having to put on more and more to meet demand, and that the key difference with Quilter’s academy was that there was a focus on building skills post-qualification and ongoing support.

“Whether it’s finding them at home with one of our existing firms or helping them set up their own business, it’s that continued support post-qualification, which I think is going to make that real difference. I think you’ll start to see more rounded, more quality-based advisers.”

Nixon said that it was already “inundated with new candidates” and it had more “plans to grow”.

“I think we’ve all got a bit of a duty of care to bring new blood in and help them on the right path, and mortgage and protection is the absolute starting point to start their career, and it’s a perfect foundation,” she added.

 

More broker firms moving from DA to AR

Nixon said that there was a “real trend” of broker firms moving from directly appointed (DA) to become appointed representatives (ARs).

“I think Consumer Duty and regulation changes are a key driver in that, and then also having support. A network that can support you in all areas is absolutely one of the key trends that we’re seeing in the conversations that we’re having now.”

She said another factor could be that with heightened regulation, lenders could struggle to have “oversight” and could be a “little bit more cautious when working with firms like DAs” as they didn’t have a network that could offer “oversight, governance, management information”.

Nixon said that, on the ground, advisers were seeing more “challenging cases” coming through.

“I think in today’s world where lenders maybe have been a little bit more cautious around their lending approach, it’s trickier, and it’s taking our advisers longer, I think, to find solutions that are right for their customers,” she said.

“I do feel for them, because they are working in a world where things are changing so frequently, they have settled the back down a little bit, but it’s trying to find and place cases that seem a little bit more tricky.”

 

Protection on the rise

Nixon said that protection numbers were up 27% on 2022-23 and that was across the group, which includes its wealth advisers and mortgage and protection advisers, which she said was “really encouraging”.

She said that, already this year, the firm was 17% ahead of where it was last year on protection.

Nixon said that part of the growth was attributed to its strategy around mortgages and protection, which it wants to expand, as well as Consumer Duty, as people have “more of a focus around providing more of a holistic view around advice”.

She noted that the firm had done a lot of work in the prior year to “really embed that and to instil the importance of advice and protection being a foundation”, though training and so on were also key factors.

Nixon said that, looking at mortgage activity, the network was around 20% down on last year, which would have an impact on firms’ incomes.

“We want to make sure our firms have strong and sustainable models and they’re commercially viable. It’s looking at how we can help them continue to trade and deliver that quality advice.

“It’s how we could close that income gap, which when you look at procuration fees for product transfers that were there, [it’s] almost 50% of our business; it’s a big impact. We help them strategically look at where else they can then start to close that commercial gap, whether it be in wealth or protection.

“I do think that’s been one of the key drivers for the protection growth, which is always the way when [the] mortgage market starts to quieten down, but we want to try and keep that at that level,” she explained.