During the last quarter there have been a couple of stories within network land that may not have caught everyone’s attention.
As Paul Day founder of Network Consulting points out, recently advertised on Forbes Burton business consultant’s website, was an unnamed mortgage network up for sale.
“Although consolidation is inevitable, as I’ve written previously, there are new challenger propositions that have entered the market and more coming. Secondly, HL Partnership announced what they describe as a “strategic Investment” from The Better Home Group, a major player from South Africa.”
He added: “it may well have noted that MAB appeared to have not recruited any new firms in 2024. However, it became apparent that all new firms had been recruited in to a different company in the group, Mortgage Advice Bureau (Derby) Limited and were therefore not included in previous tables. This has now been remedied and the correct number of joining firms now included.”
Looking specifically at the latest Network League Table data produced by Network Consulting, Day says it looks as though John Charcol has had a massive loss of firms. However, most of the firms that appear to have left, were single adviser firms and many of the advisers have remained with John Charcol as RI’s.
“Clearly, following LSL completing the purchase of John Charcol in April, they have just restructured their AR model, so not as bad as it first appears,” he explains.
The networks that have experienced the most sizable growth in the mortgage market are The Right Mortgage Network with a net gain year to date of 32 firms, however TMG needs to be mentioned again with an impressive growth in firms numbers year to date of 29.7%, closely followed by Cornerstone with a growth of 24.6%. TMG experienced their first loss of firms of 2024 in Q3, losing 12 firms, which was a net loss of one as they on-boarded 11 in the same period.
The FCA register doesn’t have the functionality to monitor new and leaving mortgage advisers, but by using data Network Consulting has pulled at various points throughout the year, there has been in a net increase in mortgage adviser numbers of 334 across the networks displayed.
This, Day explains, is not affected by the omission of MAB new firms but is slightly skewed however, because Sense network appear to have added mortgage permissions to a large number of advisers that didn’t have them previously. So, the true adviser growth number over the same period is closer to 130, which is still encouraging.
“There are some very strong network propositions and the network model is still enjoying net growth in new firms both year to date and in Q3, despite the “false” loss of 35 firms for John Charcol. Choosing the right model for any adviser business is imperative for long-term, profitable and uninterrupted journey. There are offerings that will suit most businesses and more choice is likely to come to the market in the coming year,“Day concludes.
| Network | Total number of AR firms | Number of AR firms that joined in YTD 2024 | Number of AR firms that left in YTD 2024 | Net change in number of AR firms YTD 2024 | Net change in percentage terms | Net change in AR firms in Q3 2024 | Number of advisers with mortgage permissions as per FCA register (CPD20 & CPD21) | Average number of mortgage advisers per firm |
| St. James’s Place Wealth Management Plc | 2786 | 186 | 133 | 53 | 1.9% | 26 | 1382 | 0.5 |
| Primis*† | 1125 | 47 | 77 | -30 | -2.7% | -19 | 2316 | 2.1 |
| Quilter * | 707 | 37 | 46 | -9 | -1.3% | 1 | 1406 | 2.0 |
| Stonebridge Mortgage Solutions Ltd† | 647 | 69 | 55 | 14 | 2.2% | 7 | 1150 | 1.8 |
| Openwork Limited | 612 | 16 | 49 | -33 | -5.4% | -9 | 2438 | 4.0 |
| HL Partnership Limited† | 490 | 44 | 31 | 13 | 2.7% | 5 | 866 | 1.8 |
| The Right Mortgage Limited† | 395 | 63 | 31 | 32 | 8.1% | 10 | 687 | 1.7 |
| 2Plan Wealth Management | 268 | 46 | 11 | 35 | 13.1% | 8 | 384 | 1.4 |
| Sesame Limited† | 243 | 5 | 13 | -8 | -3.3% | -4 | 560 | 2.3 |
| The On-Line Partnership Limited* | 238 | 18 | 20 | -2 | -0.8% | -2 | 299 | 1.3 |
| Connect IFA Ltd† | 210 | 45 | 21 | 24 | 11.4% | 10 | 210 | 1.0 |
| Mortgage Advice Bureau Limited | 186 | 18 | 16 | 2 | 1.1% | 3 | 1907 | 10.3 |
| New Leaf Distribution Limited | 170 | 23 | 14 | 9 | 5.3% | -2 | 252 | 1.5 |
| Sense Network* | 169 | 18 | 9 | 9 | 5.3% | 4 | 386 | 2.3 |
| ValidPath Limited | 144 | 42 | 1 | 41 | 28.5% | 14 | 54 | 0.4 |
| Mortgage Intelligence Ltd† | 143 | 6 | 10 | -4 | -2.8% | 0 | 339 | 2.4 |
| Best Practice IFA Group Limited | 127 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 4.7% | -1 | 102 | 0.8 |
| White Rose Finance Group Limited†** | 110 | 29 | 11 | 18 | 16.4% | 5 | 33 | 0.3 |
| TMG Direct Limited† | 91 | 38 | 11 | 27 | 29.7% | -1 | 265 | 2.9 |
| Julian Harris* | 75 | 3 | 6 | -3 | -4.0% | -1 | 96 | 1.3 |
| Beneficial limited† | 71 | 16 | 24 | -8 | -11.3% | -3 | 78 | 1.1 |
| Cornerstone Financial† | 65 | 21 | 5 | 16 | 24.6% | 9 | 175 | 2.7 |
| Rosemount Financial Solutions (IFA) | 65 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4.6% | 1 | 101 | 1.6 |
| Dragon Brokers Limited† | 64 | 28 | 27 | 1 | 1.6% | 4 | 76 | 1.2 |
| Corbel Partners | 52 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.0% | -1 | 60 | 1.2 |
| Richdale Brokers | 42 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 19.0% | 5 | 30 | 0.7 |
| John Charcol Limited† | 31 | 1 | 35 | -34 | -109.7% | -35 | 163 | 5.3 |
| Pi Financial Ltd | 30 | 0 | 3 | -3 | -10.0% | 0 | 73 | 2.4 |
| JLM Mortgage Network† | 29 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3.4% | 3 | 92 | 3.2 |
| Ingard Financial† | 26 | 1 | 6 | -5 | -19.2% | 0 | 34 | 1.3 |
* denotes multipal principals (networks) trading under one network brand † denotes networks holding only mortgage and protection permissions** specialise in consumer creditSource: FCA registerFigures correct at 10th October 2024
