With February half term already now behind us, somehow we’ve packed 6 working weeks of 2025 under our belts already. So how did that happen?
Christmas will now seem like a distant memory, but have you actually taken control of the year, or has it taken control of you?
Apart from developing a host of new features (more on those in a moment), we’ve also been looking at the financial/mortgage adviser trends to get a feel for what it feels like out there in the marketplace. Does it match our own experience? Very much so.
Firstly, what is clearly evident is the significant impact that the demands of Consumer Duty is having on financial/mortgage advisers’ ability to balance client-facing time with compliance.
Research conducted by Octopus Money and covered in an in-depth article in Financial Reporter revealed that in the 12 months since the introduction of Consumer Duty rules financial advisers are spending more time on paperwork which, in turn, is placing further pressure on profit margins.
Although this survey looks at the wider financial services sector, rather than mortgage advisers specifically, what it does reveal is the significant additional time burden created by non-negotiable administration.
In another insight, revealed on the mortgage adviser forum CHERRY , the impact of a succession of mortgage rate changes after the autumn 2023 budget became evident in the stress levels felt by many mortgage advisers. As Ben Perks, CEO of Orchard Financial Services. said:
“As rates have risen, stress tests, affordability and various other criteria have become much more stringent. In addition to the complexities now faced by brokers trying to secure mortgages for clients, the conversations with borrowers have taken a turn for the worse.”
That said, research conducted by Investec Bank and reported by Mortgage Solutions found that 91% of mortgage brokers expect business to increase in 2025, with only 8% expecting business levels to stay the same.
As we reported in last month’s 2025 predictions blog, the year ahead will see the UK mortgage market bloom to £76bn worth of business, with interest rate drops leading to a flurry of new activity.
Binder is a mortgage adviser portal created by mortgage advisers for mortgage advisers. We created it because we wanted to claw back time that was eating into our 9-5 days and our weekends, as well as our holidays. It's the access anywhere, game-changing mortgage adviser portal that puts you in control of your workflow by streamlining the entire mortgage application process.
From client fact find and documentation retrieval to admin compliance and client communications, Binder makes it easy to prioritise caseloads, and give key admin processing tasks to non advising members of your team.
All documentation is securely stored for downloading at any time to support compliance and Consumer Duty evidence.
And because we’ve now integrated the portal with the Intelliflo Office interface, it's safe and easy to migrate all your existing client data over to Binder. We can even help support you with this key changeover.
We’re now working on a host of new features which, as they come on line in 2025, will really help you play your ‘A game’, and enable you to get on top of those time-consuming tasks. Tasks that not only take you away from client-facing meetings and business development, but have an impact on those all-important margins.
Here’s what’s coming soon at Binder:
Client facing fact find.
The bedrock of every successful mortgage application is a detailed fact finding session that is mortgage specific. Not just a generic financial services fact find. Released this week, one of its key advantages is that it features only the fields that are relevant to your client and their mortgage - and it will be one that you can send to them to complete, saving you time to spend on responding with quality, Consumer Duty-compliant advice.
Certified digital signatures.
E-signatures are a common feature on many legal/financial services portals, but ensuring they are certified and compliant is critical to the integrity of the progression of each case. This is now one of our latest features designed to speed up the application process.
Document re-use.
In a fast moving market with ever-changing mortgage rates and competing offers, the last thing any mortgage adviser wants is to go back to Square 1 on documentation. This new feature now enables mortgage advisers to prepare cases before speaking to clients, giving them a clear audit of each case and notification of any changes in advice given throughout the transaction. With all your documentation securely stored, this feature also stops the advisor from having to ask clients for documents they have already provided, such as ID and bank accounts.
Client activity alert.
Introduced towards the end of last year, this new feature enables you to make immediate contact with a client when you can see that they’re active on the portal - another great way to maintain client contact momentum and catch them at a moment when you have their attention. As with all client comms, Binder streamlines all your client comms into a single funnel for smooth and efficient organisation.
IO integration - further enhancements.
Linking Binder up to the Intelliflo Office (IO) interface, was always one of the biggest industry collabs that we needed to secure. IO integration has been a key feature for over a year now and creates a seamless user experience with our portal. Importantly, it now allows data to be transferred from Binder to IO accurately and quickly, making it much easier to remain compliant and freeing up time to spend on important client appointments. Mortgage advisers can now add clients, plans, documents and the vast majority of the Binder fact find, allowing a huge time saving and avoidance of re-keying in data.
“2025 will be an important year for the mortgage industry. The market is growing and there are signs of increased buyer confidence, coupled with more activity from mortgage lenders.
So we see 2025 as an important year for Binder too when our range of new features will give mortgage advisers the technology to optimise their business development pipelines while keeping on top of all that non-negotiable admin and compliance.
The best way to see how we can revolutionise the way you work is to invest in a FREE 45 minute demo. It could be the best 45 mins you spend this year”
Experience the time saving difference for yourself - with a Binder demo. Simply click here to book.
