Mortgage Link advisers provide advice about:
Determining how much you can afford to borrow to purchase a property (within lenders affordability guidelines).
Selecting an appropriate lender and mortgage structure.
How to structure your repayments to pay off your mortgage sooner
Structuring and refixing your current lending.
We provide advice in relation to the following lending products:
Mortgages
Personal Loans
Tops ups
Fixed rate rollovers
Debt consolidation
Business loans
We provide advice in relation to products provided by the following companies:
Mortgage and lending planning fee
Mortgage Link advisers are usually remunerated by way of commission, by the providers of the loan products we recommend. On occasion, some providers may not pay a commission. In this situation, we will charge a fee for our advice. The fee payable will be a reflection of the time required to obtain a loan approval for you. Where a fee will be payable for the advice, your Mortgage Link adviser will agree the amount of the fee with you prior to obtaining a lending approval. This fee can be added to your loan amount and will be paid to Mortgage Link at the time your loan is advanced.
Where a Mortgage Link adviser has obtained an approval from a lender who does pay commission, but you decide not to proceed with the loan, a fee of up to $2,250 will be payable as remuneration for the time spent on getting an approval. This fee is payable within 7 days of you deciding not to proceed with an approval.
Mortgage and lending service fee
Should you proceed with a loan implementation after advice from your Mortgage Link adviser, and then repay or refinance your loan within 28 months of your loan being advanced, without giving your Mortgage Link adviser the opportunity to assist you with a refinance, Mortgage Link may charge you a fee of $150 per hour for the time spent to get the initial loan approved and implemented. The maximum fee will be $2,250 (15 hours). In some instances, advisers may charge a higher fee depending on the level of service provided. Your Adviser will agree with you any applicable fees.
Conflicts of interest
For mortgages and lending, Mortgage Link and the financial adviser receive commissions from some of the lenders we can provide recommendations for. If you proceed to implement lending with the lender recommended to you, the lender will pay a commission to your financial adviser. The amount of the commission is based on the amount of the lending; specific remuneration will be advised to you when advice is provided.
From time to time, product providers may also reward us for the overall business we provide to them. They may give us tickets to sports events, hampers, or other incentives.
To ensure that our financial advisers prioritise the client’s interests above their own, we follow an advice process that ensures our personalised recommendations are made on the basis of the client’s goals and circumstances, as advised to us. Mortgage Link financial advisers complete regular training, including how to manage conflicts of interest. Each adviser has a regular compliance review of their advice process and our compliance programme is reviewed annually by our external compliance adviser.
If you are not satisfied with our financial advice service you can make a complaint by emailing complaints@lfg.co.nz, or by calling 0800 466 784. You can also write to us at: 1/1 Antares Place, Rosedale, Auckland. When we receive a complaint, we will consider it using our internal complaints process:
We will consider your complaint and let you know how we intend to resolve it. We may need to contact you to get further information about your complaint.
We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them. If we cannot, we will contact you within that time to let you know we need more time to consider your complaint.
We will contact you by phone or email to let you know whether we can resolve your complaint and how we propose to do so.
If we cannot resolve your complaint, or you are not satisfied with the way we propose to do so, you can contact Financial Disputes Resolution Scheme (FDRS). FDRS provides a free, independent dispute resolution service that may help investigate or resolve your complaint if we have not been able to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction. You can contact FDRS by phone 0508 337 337 or email enquiries@fdrs.org.nz.
Mortgage Link, and anyone who gives financial advice on our behalf, has duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 relating to the way that we give advice. We are required to:
give priority to your interests by taking all reasonable steps to make sure our advice is not materially influenced by our own interests (431K)
exercise care, diligence, and skill in providing you with advice (431L)
meet standards of competence, knowledge and skill set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (these are designed to make sure that we have the expertise needed to provide you with advice) (431I)
meet standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services (these are designed to make sure we treat you as we should and give you suitable advice).
This is only a summary of the duties that we have. More information is available by contacting us, or by visiting the Financial Markets Authority website at https://www.fma.govt.nz