The Right Mortgage and Protection Network has no plans to expand beyond 500 firms but wants to continue being a good firm for its employees and customers, its chief executive and founding director said.
Speaking to Mortgage Solutions to mark the firm’s 10th anniversary this month, Martin Wilson said the firm was “secure” in its position and its team all had the same mission.
He said many people might not be aware of The Right Mortgage, but he was “absolutely convinced” it was not the firm’s objective to become a “massive network”.
“We said we’ve had no more than 500 relationships, we’ve currently got around 400, and I think we’ll still do that.
“We’ve got no wish to compete with other people, we just want to do what we’ve been designed to do,” Wilson added.
However, Wilson did want to make it known that the firm was multifaceted, with members selling mortgages, private medical insurance, equity release, insurance and protection so it could look after the many needs of its customers.
How the housing landscape is set to shift
Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries
The Right Mortgage will “keep on managing what we’ve got”, Wilson said, adding: “You end up with diminishing returns – you get bigger, you make less.”
A decade on, The Right Mortgage is a profitable and “good business” that remains “fair with our members”, while avoiding passing on additional expenses like regulatory costs.
“We’re in business together, and where we can save money and help them, we do,” Wilson said.
Treating brokers with trust
Wilson said the role of a network had not changed over the years, and the purpose was still to “look after your customer, treat your customers well, treat your customers fairly and your customer will always come back and deal with you”.
He said it “shouldn’t be a debatable subject” to put the client first, and with the many regulatory changes in the sector, it had always remained The Right Mortgage’s belief that “you can make money in financial services, you can make money doing mortgages but, at the same time, the first and most important thing is you’ve got to look after the customer”.
Wilson has worked in financial services for 40 years and previously ran another network called Personal Touch. All of The Right Mortgage’s founders have experience as advisers.
When launching, Wilson and co-founders Amanda Wilson, Adam Stretton and Tania Stretton set out to avoid treating its staff with suspicion like some networks’ compliance officers did, to show they were trusted.
He added that some networks “treat everybody as dishonest, but that’s the wrong way to go about it. That way, everybody shuts their doors, they don’t want to communicate. Therefore, nobody communicates”.
Wilson said many of The Right Mortgage’s employees had been with the company from the start, as he said they were looked after all the way through to retirement and selling their business.
“We set up the business with the premise that we wanted to have a long-term business for our staff and for our members, and we wanted to look after them for as long as they wished to stay with us in an environment that was fun [and] friendly, and we cooperate together,” Wilson added.
He said the year had started well for The Right Mortgage and it wanted to continue helping its brokers to do better, and had recently introduced extra employee benefits to make the company “a good environment to work [at] and enjoyable”.
Technology changing the mortgage market
When asked how the sector had changed since The Right Mortgage was launched, Wilson said it had been through a “radical change”.
The firm launched just after the financial crisis, when the sector was still paper-based and much of the underwriting was done manually. Technology was being used, but Wilson said it had “changed dramatically” in the last 10 years.
He said the firm had to keep up to date with changes, “running [at] 100 miles an hour”.
“To keep pace with it is a difficult challenge,” he added.
The firm recently updated its technology, and Wilson said that, six months on, it had retained its staff despite the change not being smooth. This included transitioning from Mortgage Brain to Acre to reflect that the firm was multifaceted and did not only deal with mortgages.
‘Best year ever’ for The Right Mortgage
The network also recently announced its 2024 performance, marking it as its “best year ever” for business growth and activity.
This included a 14% increase in mortgage business, a 22% rise in protection, a 21% increase in general insurance, a 58% lift in income protection, 39% more equity release and a 41% jump in private medical insurance.
It also saw growth in members, with 881 advisers across 402 firms as of 27 January, 125 more advisers and 31 more firms than the year before. Its staff numbers also increased to 74.
Wilson said: “We’re very pleased to be able to announce such strong growth and development over the course of the last 12 months, from business activity in multiple areas, to member growth, to increasing and improving our support team, to developing new relationships and setting such strong foundations for the years ahead.
“This has been a truly team effort from all those active within the network, to our key stakeholder partners, and the advisers who are the absolute heartbeat of everything we do.”
He added: “Overall, as our numbers prove, 2024 was undoubtedly the best year ever for The Right Mortgage and Protection Network, but the hard work clearly doesn’t stop here. We are absolutely committed to this market and to supporting our members and will continue to deliver everything they need in order that they might also be breaking business and income records for many years to come.”
