Echo Finance Vs. The World: How We Compare To Other Mortgage Firms
We think Echo Finance is the best place for mortgage brokers and other industry professionals to work. We may be bias, of course, but have tried to be objective when comparing our offering to the rest of the mortgage world below:
What makes Echo different from other mortgage firms?
On paper, we’re a mortgage brokerage but we like to think of ourselves as something much more than that. Echo Finance isn’t a network, nor is it a club. It’s something bigger.
The table below shows how Echo Finance compares to other mortgage firms as a place for mortgage brokers and financial advisers to ply their trade:
Echo Finance | Other Mortgage Firms |
We are a directly authorised (DA) brokerage meaning there’s less red tape and no middleman before advisers receive their commission | This gives us a major advantage over competitors who are appointed representatives (ARs) as they can only pay commission after their DA firm has taken their cut |
Whole-of-market and on panel with every lender & insurance provider in the UK | Although most independent brokerages claim to be whole-of-market, many are not on panel with every mortgage lender. Particularly AR firms who may be limited by their principle firm on which lenders & providers they can use |
Pay all of our mortgage advisers based on a true revenue share model with a commission split that favours them | Be wary of our competitors who apply top-slicing and limit protection to non-indemnity or have loaded premiums |
Our advisers can write all business types including mortgages, protection, bridging, commercial, equity release, second charge loans and general insurance | Some firms will want you to specialise in one area or restrict you to taking mortgage leads only |
We will provide all your mortgage leads for FREE | Some brokerages will expect you to generate your own leads if you’re self-employed, or sell them to you |
We generate our own leads, at volume. This means you can have as many as you like. | Some brokerages will imply they will provide leads to you, but how many leads is that? One or two a month? |
We’ll build you your own lead-generating website, add new content every week and keep it compliant + updated for you | We don’t know of any other firms who offer this |
At Echo Finance, you’ll have a large support network around you, comprised of an admin team, marketing and IT staff. Not to mention other brokers who are always happy to help you place a case | This gives us the edge over appointed representative competitors, as brokers with those firms don’t have this level of support |
Weekly Continuing professional development (CPD) events organised for advisers and incentives for top performers | Fewer training and development opportunities at AR firms as brokers are often left to their own devices and restricted on the business they can write |
Centralised admin and compliance teams ensure you maintain compliance. We 100% audit every case. | Not all mortgage firms can provide these services in-house, which means it falls onto advisers to ensure they are on top of industry rules and regulations |
Protection all on indemnity terms, most on 2 year clawbacks, no money ‘set aside for clawback pots’ that an advisor will never see the light of day and NO loaded premiums, ever | Forced to take over 4 year clawbacks terms, Loaded Premiums, Forced Non-indemnity, clawback pots! |
Why Echo Finance is better than a network
Echo Finance is not a network as we don’t have multiple appointed representatives (ARs) under us, which is advantageous to brokers who choose to join us in several ways.
All of our advisers are individuals and this gives us greater control in areas such as our sales processes and recruitment, allowing us to scale up as and when we want to.
As a mortgage broker, this translates to benefits that you wouldn’t have in a network:
You can just focus on selling
Compliance is taken care of for you
All of our systems and processes are fully tested and established
You don’t need to handle any recruitment or training
Joining Echo Finance means you’re advising in a directly authorised (DA) environment, and this can be more lucrative than working as part of a network.
According to the latest census from recruitment company BWD, DA advisers earn over 19% more than brokers who operate within a network.
What makes us better than an AR firm to work for?
Our senior mortgage advisers and leadership team would never recommend working for an appointed representative (AR) firm due to the limitations you’ll encounter.
A better option is for advisers to become an AR themselves or work for a directly authorised (DA) firm, like Echo Finance. This way, you will be cutting out the middleman when it comes to receiving your income.
When you work for a DA firm like us, there is nobody taking a cut of your commission before it comes your way, which would not be the case if you were working for an AR.
Not all brokerages are lead generation firms too
As well as being an award-winning directly authorised mortgage brokerage, we have a thriving lead generation arm to our business as well.
Not all of our competitors generate their own leads which means they have to turn to third-parties for enquiries at an additional cost or require advisers to generate their own (at their cost).
By working for a business like Echo Finance, where lead-gen is baked into what we do, you can get all of your enquiries for free and go directly to the lead source when handling them.
Interested in joining the Echo Finance team? Head to our jobs page to view our current vacancies or get in touch for an informal chat about careers at Echo.
FAQs
Yes. We have packager status with certain lenders (we cannot disclose them here I’m afraid). This means we often earn enhanced procuration fees from specific lenders. Get in touch to find out which lenders we package for.
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