Feature
Broker Education
With changes occurring in the financial services industry, it’s important for mortgage brokers to stay informed. Heather Li explores the value of training and continuing education and where it’s available to brokers
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hen most of us were young, we were taught if you don’t know, ask. Education, training and asking questions are the cornerstone to advancing in any profession and building a successful mortgage brokering business for the long term is no exception. Though this industry is now more than 20 years old in most provinces, it is still a young profession. Licensing and regulation is a recurring issue; there are more consumers who prefer a broker now but many are still wary or uninformed; and the industry as a whole is still developing best practices for the transfer of knowledge and skills. British Columbia is ahead of everyone else as it has instituted mandatory relicensing requirements every two years. In Alberta, you cannot start your own business until you have worked for two years under another broker after licensing to obtain enough hands-on experience. The province is also developing its own relicensing rules. Meanwhile Mal Eccles, the education chair for the Independent Mortgage Brokers Association of Ontario (IMBA) is envious of his western neighbours. Without legislation, he sees education as a purely independent act no matter how much support is provided by the associations, lenders and broker houses. “You’ve heard the old story about taking a horse to water, you can’t make him drink,” says Eccles. “There’s one thing I have found after being education chair for IMBA: you can’t even convince the horse to walk to the water, never mind whether you can convince him to drink or not.”
“ most, if not all, brokers and agents agree if you want to be a top performer, you have to make it happen for yourself ”
This comes across as a pessimistic outlook, but Eccles is just expressing his desire to better the mortgage broker industry and a knowing opinion that much improvement can be made. Most, if not all, brokers and agents agree if you want to be a top performer, you have to make it happen for yourself. “The people who really want to take advantage of enhancing their career or moving their career along into the next level know professional development courses are there,” says Rick Wilson, regional sales manager for Mortgage Alliance for the Prairies. “They take advantage of it and they’re all over it. Then there’s another group who’s more concerned about the day-to-day business that may not quite see the value in it. I don’t think that’s an industry thing but a personal thing.” For anyone who sees the value in continuing education, you know what you’re looking for and needing to develop at the moment. But know there are many resources available. All you have to do sometimes is ask—or Google. Where to learn The industry associations are committed to professional development. Nationally, the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) provides the original broker licensing course in Ontario and Saskatchewan, which is available online for Ontario and as an intensive five-day inclassroom course. CAAMP also offers the AMP designation, which needs to be renewed annually upon the completion of 12 continuing education credits. Currently, the CAAMP website has a total of 15 different continuing education products in a mix of French and English, and is continuing to add lessons in 2011. In the fall of 2010, CAAMP also introduced a new online learning management system that demonstrates various mortgage education features. “We invested a considerable amount of
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