Always use a mortgage adviser with competent adviser status (Source: www.simpleacademy.com)
*Please note that we are not currently hiring any mortgage advisors or providing any training
Today, people need mortgage advisers and financial advisers in general, more than ever. The mortgage market is a bit of a mine field at the moment, to put it lightly. And to navigate this mine field on your own is a recipe for disaster. That’s why the help and support of a mortgage adviser with competent adviser status is the best possible thing you can do when it comes to your personal finance. In this blog, we will explore what it means to be a mortgage adviser, why you need a mortgage adviser if you are getting a mortgage, and how advisers get competent mortgage adviser status.
What Is A Mortgage Adviser?
Ok, so we realise that for some people who have either never gotten a mortgage before, or have been unfortunate enough to try and navigate getting a mortgage arranged direct through a bank (which is an nightmare in it’s own right!) might not actually know what a mortgage adviser does or why they are so important.
A mortgage adviser is an integral part of the mortgage process and no one should attempt to get a mortgage without their help. We might be biased for obvious reasons but honestly it’s true. The mortgage adviser’s role is to act as an intermediary between you and the mortgage lenders. By that we mean that a mortgage adviser will do all the work to get you a mortgage with the lender without you having to worry about anything yourself.
An adviser will advise you on the best mortgage deals, best rates, and best products available on the open mortgage market and will help you to secure this deal direct. If you decide to go direct to your own bank, you will be limited to the mortgages that they offer…and no one else. You will also have to deal direct with the bank, wait for an appointment which can often take weeks, constantly check the progress of your application, and deal with any issues that there might be yourself. If you get the help of an adviser, they will do all of the above for you and more.
As mortgage lenders are pulling their products, raising rates, and in a few cases completely stopping lending in response to the current economic crisis, getting the help of a competent adviser is exactly what you need to be doing. Whether its a brand new mortgage or a remortgage that you are looking to do.
What Is Competent Adviser Status?
This is an interesting question because, surely everyone offering financial advice should be competent right? Well, unfortunately there are people who claim to be professional financial advisers who definitely should not be offering their guidance to clients. Primarily, because they have not been through the in-depth training and have not gained the relevant experience that an adviser needs to have gone through to be classed as a competent adviser.
A competent adviser is basically a mortgage adviser who has completed their exams, received training, received coaching and regular observation from a senior professional in the industry and has been confirmed to be competent to offer independent financial advice to clients without requiring supervision. Competent adviser status is not only needed by mortgage professionals, but anyone offering financial advice to the general public should have it. This includes but is not limited to savings, pensions & insurance.
How To Gain Competent Adviser Status
To get competent adviser status, mortgage advisor and any other kind of financial advisers will need to go through the necessary examinations that they are required to take. For mortgage advisers, these exams are called the certificate in mortgage advice and practice or CeMAPs. CeMAP exams allow mortgage advisers to gain the necessary knowledge they need to offer quality advice and makes them stand out above others with respected and prestigious qualifications. Do not ever receive mortgage advice from someone claiming to be an experienced adviser who does not have CeMAP qualifications.
In the case of the advisers at Oportfolio mortgages, everyone specifically offering mortgage and protection advice is CeMAP qualified and even some of our administration team members who don’t offer advice are CeMAP qualified to ensure that they have had the same quality of training that the advisers have.
With The Help Of A Mortgage Network
Oportfolio is part of a wider mortgage network called PRIMIS. PRIMIS help our business with a great many things that you can learn more about in our post from earlier on in the year. But one of the main things that they help with is training and coaching our advisers. The next step through PRIMIS once our advisers have completed and passed their CeMAPs is to go through training and coaching with senior industry professionals. These professionals through courses and academy training give our advisers the support, guidance and experience that they need to be able to eventually offer financial advice on their own.
During this training period, any advice offered to clients in real-life scenarios will be monitored assessed and approved by the senior industry professionals, offering tips and teachings along the way. To gain competent adviser status, you will normally need to have several mortgage and protection cases that you have advised on and completed yourself which will be submitted to assessors through your mortgage network who will grade the cases. Based on the merit of the advice and how confident the examiner of the case is, you will hopefully achieve competent adviser status.
Anyone who is offering mortgage, protection, or any other kind of financial advice who is not qualified by CeMAPS or any exams associated with other types of financial advice and does not have the experience and competent adviser status should not be someone that you approach to help with your finances.
Competent Adviser Status Training
At Oportfolio mortgages, we don’t settle for anything less than perfect when it comes to providing mortgage and protection advice and when it comes to applying for and arranging you mortgage and protection applications. When a new adviser joins our office, we make sure that they have the required CEMAP qualifications as an absolute minimum. If we are hiring a CEMAP qualified adviser who does not yet have competent adviser status, we will never allow them to advise our clients until they have been through the training with ourselves in the office and with PRIMIS.
We will also never allow our advisers to give advice on their own without being assessed and signed off by PRIMIS and ourselves with competent adviser status. For anyone who has joined our team and decides that they want to become a mortgage and protection adviser, we will support them every step of the way to help them gain their CeMAP qualifications and then their subsequent training and competent status. We want to make sure that all of our advisers are the best they can possibly be so that they can offer the best mortgage and protection advice possible. That means no cutting corners and certainly no underqualified advisers.
If you are looking for a mortgage adviser and you like the sound of how our advisers are trained and the experience we have here at Oportfolio Mortgages, please give our team a call today to see how we can help you with all your mortgage and insurance needs.
