The show must go on

Being a broker this week has felt like a complete emotional roller coaster.

From being on top of the (lending) world 9 am Monday morning to feeling like our businesses were being robbed from us by 5 pm with the release of the Royal Commission that very same day.

As Tom Panos says, in our business you can go from the heights of exhilaration to the depths of depression all within 12 hours.

…That felt pretty true Monday.

The Royal Commission has hit us all pretty hard, and while most of the broker community are up in arms about the banks, talking about leaving the industry and generally being scared for their future I think we all need to take a step back.

Taking another quote from Warren Buffett now is the time to ‘be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful’.

My question to you is, what is the opportunity for us, the top brokers in all of this?

Here are a few thoughts to mull over this weekend.

• We aren’t the first country this has happened to. Trail got banned in the UK a few years back. Brokers now only get paid up front, but there is no clawback. Brokers adapted and changed their model from a set and forget home loan, to stay in touch with their customers and look a better deal and refinance every 2 years. Ironically, some banks are now paying brokers a retention fee every 2 years to retain the customers – effectively reinstating trail payments.
• The Royal Commission is only a recommendation, for it to pass into law it has to go through the Senate which is not changing in May. In the case of financial advisers a few years ago, the FOFA legislation was supposed to be passed within a fairly short time frame but got extended by years and ended up being heavily watered down from the original proposal. While commissions were supposed to be completely banned, financial advisers continued to receive comms on insurance and super products (which is potentially changing as part of the RC several years later, giving them time to adapt and change their model to fee for service).

In the case of financial advisers and brokers overseas, they found a way to survive – but did so through adapting and changing – not by quitting.

Who’s to say that this isn’t an opportunity for the brokers who want it to be?

Jayden

PS – If you’re still feeling a bit down in the dumps, I suggest checking out this video. Possibly my favourite video of all time.

PPS – If you haven’t already signed the petition, please do it (and send to everyone you know)