In the last few months I’ve met a lot of people who are in the process of buying a home. Being a financial adviser the conversation generally turns to mortgage protection and home insurance.

Most of the people I meet have already met the bank, got their mortgage approval and have gone sale agreed on a property. At that stage the bank usually tells them that they will set up a meeting with one of the banks advisers to organise their mortgage protection policy and their home insurance. Mortgage, mortgage protection and home insurance done at once. Seems easy….

So why use a broker instead of the bank?

Brokers are usually independent. They have access to a wide range of mortgage protection providers who all want your business. What that means is they will be able to secure the lowest price available. They will also have access to providers who have different benefits built into their mortgage protection policies. Banks are usually tied agents of one life company. That means they don’t have access to all the providers on the market and may not be able to get you the most competitive price or the best available product.

Brokers also have particular expertise in their field and we know what our expertise is.  In the last 12 months we have been approached a number of times  by banks who were unable to place a clients home insurance with the provider the bank use. We usually see this where the home insurance is not totally straight forward and the bank don’t  have the expertise to put the cover in place. A good example of this would be where clients are refurbishing a property and it might be unoccupied for months before they actually move in. Not all insurers will look at these risks. Brokers have access to insurers that will and they know which insurers to ask.

Most of all (and I know I’m biased), the majority of brokers are small businesses that are independently owned and operated.  We don’t just appreciate your business, we rely on it to survive. We don’t have big marketing budgets, we need referrals – because of that you can rest assured we’ll look after you to the very best of our ability. We want you to be a client for life and we need you to tell your friends how well we looked after you.

Finally, consider the fact that the interest alone on a €400k mortgage over 30 years is about €300k.  Banks are already very well paid . Consider using a broker who’ll really appreciate your business instead.