The Money Group is looking to double the number of advisers within its brand, move into the pensions and investments space and open a training academy all within the next year as the network eyes grand expansion plans.
The group — which is a network of directly authorised mortgage advice businesses — started in 2015 with two businesses and two advisers and has since grown to 13 firms and 50 people working under the brand.
Director Martin Stewart said the firm planned to double the number of advisers within the group within the next year and stated he would “ultimately take the group as far as it can go”.
He said: “We plan to have 50 advisers within the Money Group come Christmas and, within a year, we’ll double it to 100 advisers.”
Mr Stewart said: “We want to build a fully fledged financial services network across the country.
“This is also all about diversity, so we’re not reliant on one form of income. We want to expand from mortgages so we can offer financial services to anybody who knocks on our door.”
The Money Group plans to move into the pensions and investment advice space by creating ‘IFA Money’ businesses to “sit in the middle” of all the other brands.
Scott Thorpe, also a director at the firm, said: “Currently, we’ve not got a credible IFA proposition in order to provide pensions and investment advice services.
“Mortgages will always create lots of clients so IFAs working within the group would get leads and the group would be able to say to clients, ‘take a look at your other needs’.”
Mr Thorpe said there was “no limit” to the group until it “ran out of towns”.
The group’s model works by providing brokers who want to run their own business a route to that end goal.
Mr Stewart said: “We want to bring brokers together, keep them within the brand but make sure they’re stand alone. They are directly authorised but feel part of a wider community.
“It’s combining the best parts of being in a network and running your own business.”
By joining The Money Group, the group and the adviser become partners in the business, both with shares in the company, and the brokers then have access to operations and compliance help, leads, business training, office space and can work under the group’s brand.
Unlike traditional networks, The Money Group does not take a percentage of the advisers’ income.
The group is currently comprised of London Money, Manchester Money, South Yorkshire Money, Teesside Money, Durham Money, Access4Finance, West Yorkshire Money, Adverse Money, London Money Loans, Specialist Money, Reading Money, and London Money Protect.
Sheffield Money is set to launch next month (September) followed shortly by Mansfield Money.
The group will also launch firms in Bristol and Somerset as well as a specialist divorce brand before the end of the year, while Cambridgeshire Money, Cotswold Money and Essex Money will launch in January 2020.
The Money Group also plans to launch a training academy by the end of the year, which will comprise of an apprenticeship scheme for school leavers to become advisers alongside business training, where advisers can train to be directors of a firm.
Mr Stewart said: “The best thing about this model is the regional aspect of it. We will have a lot of England covered by this time next year.”
Mr Stewart added: “We want to put the broker front and centre where we believe they belong. I think those who sit down with clients for a living should call the shots for once — they are the ones who know the stuff, they’re the ones who are at the coalface.”
Although primarily in the self-employed broker space, mortgage network expansions have been a popular trend among large broker firms recently.
John Charcol announced a self-employed broker network plan earlier this year and Coreco mulled a similar proposition just last month (July 30).
Just Mortgages also bolstered its support for self-employed brokers, announcing plans to more than double the number of brokers working in its self-employed division.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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