‘No mortgage market will knock me like my son’s Crohn's diagnosis’

Indeed, she said this event changed her “completely as a person” but confirmed her belief that her children should join her at Pam Brown Mortgages.

When she entered the world of advice, Pam’s son Joe was just a baby, and her daughter Nina was six but both of her children would one day qualify to become advisers, just like her.

Pam previously ran a recruitment consultancy, with much of her business based out in the United States. 

But on September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda launched a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and her stateside staff - understandably - told her they wanted to come home.

I didn’t think at that point, I would have Pam Brown Mortgages.--Pam Brown

“I thought: ‘My job is completely and utterly gone, what am I going to do?’” Pam told FTAdviser.

“I spoke to my mortgage broker and said to her, ‘I need a job where I can be at home with my children, what can I do?’ She said, ‘why don't you become a mortgage broker?’

“That was Monday, and by Friday I was a mortgage broker. You didn't need qualifications then.”

After one interview with a firm, Pam was given a business card and told to get started.

“I remember going to my first meeting and not knowing what ‘under offer’ meant. That’s how unregulated it was,” she said.

“I didn’t think at that point, I would have Pam Brown Mortgages. I didn't think it would be a career. I just thought of it as a job for four or five years. 

“Then I started to make some money and realised I could do this without leaving my children - I never put them into nursery. So about 12 or 13 years ago, I set up Pam Brown Mortgages."

A family business

“That’s when I knew I wanted my children to come and work with me."

Starting with a tiny office in the middle of a field, the brokerage migrated to a flat, before securing a high street spot in Bicester - the business’s current home.

Joe’s diagnosis with Crohn's, some years after starting the company, reaffirmed Pam’s wish for her children to work alongside her. 

“If he was unwell, I didn’t want this to affect what he earned in life,” she explained. “I was determined for my business to be big enough so he could be a mortgage broker with me. If he has a bad day, he can work from home.”

Joe’s interest lies in investments. Once he wraps his head around mortgages, he wants to move into wealth and build that part of the Pam Brown Mortgages business.

At 21, Joe is one of the youngest people in the mortgage advice industry to have sat his CeMAP exams.

He is also beginning his career at a time when the mortgage market is reverting back to higher interest rates, and ahead of an anticipated fall in house prices.

“It is difficult at the moment,” he admitted. “But I’ve always wanted to get into finance.”

Facing economic crisis together

With insolvency rates up at the end of last year and mortgage approvals down to levels not seen since the first pandemic, small businesses in the mortgage market face an uncertain picture.

Pam admitted she was scared, but with 20 years behind her of clients she is confident she can weather the storm.

“Of course it scares me. We’ve all got mortgages, so there’s a lot of spinning plates above my head.

“Some days I wake up and think, ‘Dear God', and other days I think, ‘look, we've done 20 years of this now, we've gone through a lot as a family’. 

“I don't think anything's going to knock me as much as my son getting ill.”

Pam said Joe’s diagnosis changed her “completely as a person”. Just months before the diagnosis, she had lost her best friend to cancer.

“One of those [things] changes you, never mind two. If anything bad happens, I go back to how I coped with that. If I can cope with that, I can literally cope with anything.”

Back in June, the family climbed Ben Nevis and raised more than £20,000 for the charity Crohn's & Colitis UK, getting a group of more than 30 advisers involved in the project.

“I’m very passionate about Crohn's,” said Pam, who has been invited to the House of Lords for her work in the area. 

The family is currently trying to team up with Crohn's & Colitis UK to offer an underwriting service for people with Crohn's who need life insurance. 

“We’re currently in the process of discussions with two life companies,” said Pam.

Avoiding the phones to picking up awards

Nina, Pam’s 26-year-old daughter, has been growing the protection arm of the family business.

But Nina did not start out in protection. She explored a number of different career paths first, beginning with teaching.

She then did a second degree in real estate. Initially, the plan was for her to become a surveyor and set up that side of the business. But she took far more to protection.

On her first day in the family office, Pam said Nina was terrified to pick up the phone.

Now, she’s an award-winning protection adviser: in 2021, she won Protection Guru’s ‘Adviser of the Year’ award.

In the beginning, Nina found it tough joining the family business. “It’s definitely harder working for you mum, because she’s always going to be more critical,” Nina explained.

If I can cope with that, I can literally cope with anything.--Pam Brown

Her confidence came with consistency. The more videos she did and shared online, the more she overcame her fear of - in essence - ‘putting herself out there’.

“I still get nervous now,” said Nina, who qualified as a protection adviser three years ago.

One of the hardest parts of the job, Nina said, is clients saying 'no' to cover.

A client of hers said no to critical illness cover - largely because it seemed unaffordable at the time - only to be diagnosed with cancer six weeks later.

Pam recalled the day the client came into the office. “She said, ‘I wish I’d listened’. She came in just to say sorry.”

Nina said clients often have a misconception, which she is trying to change. 

“People just don’t have the knowledge. I’m just trying to share that and show how easy it is to get protection” she said.

For those on a budget, Nina’s mantra is “some cover is better than nothing”.

As for the future of the family business, Pam is keen not to grow too big. “I don’t want 10 advisers who don’t do much business,” she said.

While October was “ridiculously busy”, she said November “died a death”, highlighting the unpredictability of the workload.

ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com