Describe your firm in a few sentences
Sphere Financial Services is a family-focused mortgage and protection firm.
We treat our clients as we would treat our family and friends. We are passionate about looking after them ethically and with care — leaving all our clients with all-around peace of mind.
Get used to being a ‘stress sponge’. You are there to calm your client, help them and solve problems
We are big enough to look after clients properly, but small enough still to care.
What led you to become a broker?
You could say I am a broker ‘by accident’.
I was covering for maternity leave in a mortgage department at Vernon Building Society, where my mum worked, while I re-sat my maths A-level — and I got a bit sucked in.
Once I ended up on the phone to the brokers, I realised they had the best job in the whole process. I asked one of them if I could go and work for him.
To feel encouraged and supported by lenders at every step of the way would be very reassuring
It is now 25 years later and I still agree with my initial thought: helping people navigate a tricky process, giving them information, and saving them time, stress and money are a wonderful job!
What plans do you have for the future of your firm?
We’ve been expanding and changing a fair bit over the past 12 months, partly because of the Consumer Duty and partly because technology is improving and things are getting more complex.
The sales come from being sharp, organised, friendly, caring and good at communicating. We should stop keeping those facts a secret
We now have two specialist teams — mortgage and protection — and we feel that, to do the best for our clients, we as advisers need to specialise in one area and become really experienced and focused there. We really believe it is the way forward and we’ve seen amazing changes as a result.
We are investing in technology and using social media more all the time too.
What single thing could lenders do to improve brokers’ lives the most?
Obviously, I want to say, ‘Give us more notice of rate changes.’ I’d be daft not to at the moment. But I also understand why that might be hard right now.
We are big enough to look after clients properly, but small enough still to care
So I guess my overall dream would be to know that lenders aren’t constantly investing in technology and ‘back door’ ways to encourage clients to ‘cut us out’. That fear is always there, lingering.
For me, to feel encouraged and supported by lenders at every step of the way would be very reassuring — using any investment to help us all, together, instead!
What advice do you have for a broker just starting out?
Get used to being a ‘stress sponge’.
Helping people navigate a tricky process, giving them information, and saving them time, stress and money are a wonderful job
As a broker you are involved in one of the most stressful events that can happen in a person’s life. Whether you are advising during a crazy economic time, in the midst of a pandemic or just for a normal house chain, you are there to calm your client, help them and solve problems. That is the thing you will be remembered for the most.
How can the industry encourage a new intake of brokers?
Thankfully, I think some of this is starting to happen now.
Better technology, more diversity and a move away from mortgage brokering being looked at as a boring career (with too much focus as a ‘sales role’) would help.
We treat our clients as we would treat our family and friends. We are passionate about looking after them ethically and with care
The role is always different; it’s never the same any two days on the run. You never stop learning, you get to meet people and make new friends every day, and you get to help and educate people.
The sales come from being sharp, organised, friendly, caring and good at communicating. We should stop keeping those facts a secret!
If you would like your firm to be featured in Broker Focus, please email Mortgage Strategy deputy editor David Burrows at: david.burrows@emap.com
This article featured in the July/August 2023 edition of MS.
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