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Inside the 10th annual ranking, six advisers reveal what’s driving New Zealand’s broker channel toward a 60% share of the market
By NZ Adviser
New Zealand’s mortgage advisers are no longer a niche alternative to the banks; they are close to becoming the default. Broker-originated lending now accounts for roughly 60% of all new home loans in the country, an estimate reported in NZ Adviser’s own coverage of the market.
Major banks confirm the shift from their own side of the ledger. Westpac attributed 58% of its mortgage portfolio to advisers as of March 2026, up from 56.7% six months earlier. ANZ reported 53%, up from 51% two years prior. BNZ attributed 40% of its book to advisers, up from 38% in September 2024.
That growth comes as advisers absorb a tightening compliance environment, including the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Strategy that took effect in July 2026, which moves advisers from the Financial Markets Authority to a single new supervisor, the Department of Internal Affairs, while adapting to AI tools reshaping how they work day to day.
In this environment, NZ Adviser’s 10th Annual Top Advisers report recognises the professionals settling the highest volumes of residential lending in the country. To qualify for the 2026 ranking, entrants had to settle a minimum of $50 million in verified residential loans between 1 March 2025 and 28 February 2026. A remarkable 147 advisers made this year’s list, up from last year’s Top Advisers 2025 ranking.
This year’s top result came from Cameron Muggeridge of Loan Market Central, whose settlements grew by an impressive 163.9% over three years.
Muggeridge credits the growth to his team’s focus on clearer communication and a higher standard of client care, guided by a simple set of principles, doing what is right even when it creates more work, and keeping advice straightforward and proactive.
“Bringing all of these elements together is what allowed us to scale while keeping our standards and service levels right where they should be,” he says.
The adviser channel’s growth is not simply a story of market share, although the numbers are striking on their own terms. Kip Hanna, CEO of New Zealand Home Loans (NZHL), says the shift away from transactional relationships and toward long-term, advice-led relationships is a significant opportunity for advisers “prepared to build deeper relationships and focus on lifetime client value rather than individual transactions.”
That growth shows up in the numbers behind this year’s Top Advisers list itself. The qualifying field has grown steadily each year, from 63 advisers in 2024 to 94 in 2025 to 147 in 2026, as more advisers clear the report’s $50 million threshold.
The typical qualifying performance held flat between 2024 and 2025, with a median of $74.8 million against $74.3 million, before climbing to $81.3 million in 2026. Loan volumes have followed a similar pattern, holding broadly steady before a modest rise this year, suggesting the jump in 2026 reflects a genuine shift rather than a continuation of a multi-year trend.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s (REINZ) national median house price rose a modest 1.3% year on year to $775,000 in the year to May 2026. Its own House Price Index, which adjusts for the mix of properties sold and is REINZ’s preferred measure of the underlying market, was actually down 0.6% over the same period.
Either way, house price movement only accounts for part of the increase in typical adviser settlement value. The rest likely reflects advisers handling larger volumes of business as the channel itself grows.
That shift is happening alongside real regulatory change. The AML/CFT National Strategy shifts supervision of financial advisers, mortgage advisers included, away from the Financial Markets Authority and onto a single new regulator, the Department of Internal Affairs, replacing a model that had split oversight across three separate bodies.
At the same time, advisers are navigating rapid technology adoption. Every expert interviewed for this report converges on the same point: AI is removing administrative friction, but none of them believe it replaces the human judgement, empathy and trust that borrowers still expect from an adviser relationship.
Where this year’s winners sit within that wider field says as much about how they built their results as the totals alone.
For Cameron Muggeridge, partner and senior mortgage adviser at Loan Market Central, this year’s result comes down to one thing above all else: his team. Muggeridge’s settlements have climbed steadily over three years. From 2024 to 2025, he recorded a leap of 52.1%, which he bettered in the next 12 months with 73.5% growth, giving him the highest total in this year's field.
“Seeing this growth is deeply humbling, and it truly comes down to our team’s shared commitment to learning and improving every day,” he says. That commitment, he adds, was focused specifically on “growing our team’s skills so we could communicate more clearly and provide a higher level of care.”
Handling volume at this scale is not something one person achieves alone. Muggeridge settled 518 loans in 2026, up from 406 in 2025 and 240 in 2024. That growth was mirrored in his team, with the addition of two support staff and another adviser during the year – a deliberate move to protect what he sees as the harder thing to scale than volume itself, keeping the experience personal.
“Every single client matters immensely to us,” he says. “They are the true heart of this business and completely embody the values we stand for.”
Behind that growth sits a set of principles Muggeridge says has not changed since he started a decade ago: doing what is right even when it creates more work and keeping advice straightforward and proactive. What has changed is the machinery behind it.
Over the past year, his team refined its internal systems and introduced automation to the administrative side of the business, freeing up time to spend with clients directly rather than over email.
“That personal connection builds a deeper level of trust, which we hope gives our clients the true clarity and confidence they need to make important financial decisions,” he says.
Referral partners have received more attention as well, with educational evenings and tailored resources feeding a steady lift in word-of-mouth business.
Muggeridge sees that same dynamic behind the wider shift towards mortgage advisers, who now account for close to 60% of new lending in New Zealand. “It is incredibly heartening to see the adviser channel earning such strong confidence from New Zealanders,” he says.
Borrowers, in his view, are recognising a home loan as “a major life journey” rather than a one-off transaction and increasingly value a team that can look across the whole lending market rather than a single bank’s own offer, something he calls “a real privilege” and one that only motivates the team to keep raising the bar for the families they serve.
On interest rates, Muggeridge brings the structuring conversation forward rather than waiting for it, outlining how a client’s loan will be built before they have even found a property. That preparation, he says, means that when they do celebrate buying a home or investment, they can step into a tailored structure with absolute confidence, knowing it is built to protect them no matter which way the market moves.
Looking ahead, Muggeridge expects a flat, steady market through the rest of the year and sharper competition as banks work harder to retain clients directly. More broadly, he expects the industry will naturally reward those who adopt smart systems and smoother processes to better care for their clients.
For his own business, he sees the next 12 months as an opportunity to focus inward, lifting the value of the service his team provides and refining the processes behind it.
Q: What’s changed in how you work with clients over the past year that’s helped you settle the volume you have?
A: While our core advice philosophy remains exactly the same as it was a decade ago when we first started, we have worked hard over the past year to refine our internal systems and processes. We make it a priority to pick up the phone or catch up in person rather than managing everything over email.
Q: Where do you see your business, or the industry, in 12 months?
A: I believe the industry will naturally reward those who adopt smart systems and smoother processes to better care for their clients. Our two priorities are to uplift the value of the service we provide and improve and refine our day-to-day processes so we can continue delivering the high-quality, warm and personal care our clients deserve, no matter how the broader market shifts.
For Ryan Smuts, director and mortgage adviser at Kris Pedersen Mortgages, the difference between a difficult year and a record one came down to the people around him.
Smuts settled the fourth highest total in this year’s field, driven by 127.9% growth between 2025 and 2026. He attributes this change in gear to his team, saying: “I couldn't do it without them.”
Smuts’ Auckland business grew its staff through 2025 and into 2026, and he says the difference showed up in how quickly new team members found their footing with lenders.
Advisers who joined relatively recently, he says, now know their way around working with lenders a lot better, which freed him to spend more time in front of clients rather than managing the process.
A stronger property market and looser lending criteria through 2026 also played a part, but he is careful not to overstate his own role in the swing. “I don’t think I did a whole lot differently. I think it was just a combination of those other few things,” he says.
That same instinct for looking beyond the transaction shapes how Smuts talks about the broader shift toward mortgage advisers. He points to frustration among borrowers dealing directly with banks. “You’re not being told why, you’re just being told no,” he says.
That, in his view, is one of the clearest reasons clients turn to an adviser instead: someone who can explain a decision and, more often than not, find a workable alternative across a wider panel of lenders.
With interest rates still an open question, Smuts starts every structuring conversation with a client’s life plans rather than a rate forecast. Whether someone is planning to buy again, upsize, downsize or navigate a change in personal circumstances shapes the advice long before term length or fixed versus floating enters the discussion.
Splitting lending across different terms, he says, is often less about picking a winner and more about hedging against a market that nobody can predict with certainty.
Looking ahead, Smuts does not expect much to change in the regulatory environment, but he does expect technology, including AI, to keep reshaping the administrative side of the job.
Rather than growing headcount, he and his business partner are focused on using tech to free up more time for the parts of the role he sees as valuable, such as sitting with clients and helping them plan. It is, in his telling, less a matter of doing more, and more a matter of doing the same things with a team now equipped to do them well.
Q: How are you helping clients make loan structuring decisions when the interest rate outlook is uncertain?
A: Understanding what their plans are is arguably more important than what interest rates are doing. Are they buying again, upsizing, downsizing, having kids? That helps us tailor advice to their actual situation, including flexibility that can reduce interest cost even if the rate is higher.
Q: Where do you see your business, or the industry, in the next 12 months?
A: I don’t think a lot will change around the regulatory side of the industry. Technology will have a bigger part to play; we’re mainly looking at using tech, including AI, to streamline the admin parts of what we do.
When Laura te Kaat found out she had made this year’s Top Advisers list, it marked her first appearance in the ranking. The mobile mortgage adviser at The Mortgage Girls says the growth behind it was triggered by a shift in how she was showing up to work each day.
Te Kaat’s business has grown almost entirely through referrals, built on years of consistent client care, but she points to something less obvious as the real turning point.
“I’ve also invested a lot of time over the past year working on my own mental wellbeing. That’s had a much bigger impact on my business than I ever expected,” she says.
Earlier in her career, she felt she always had to prove herself. “Now I show up as myself, calmer, more genuine and able to enjoy the process. Ironically, once I stopped trying so hard to perform, my performance became the strongest it’s ever been.”
That shift has shaped how she works with clients, too. Rather than treating a mortgage as a single transaction, te Kaat has become more deliberate about staying in touch with clients long after settlement, checking in proactively as interest rates have moved around, something she says clients have come to appreciate.
The Mortgage Girls’ approachable positioning has also played a part in the volume she has settled this year. Clients often tell her they feel comfortable asking questions they might have been embarrassed to ask elsewhere, which, she says, has drawn a broad mix of first home buyers and experienced investors alike and turned many of them into repeat clients and referrers.
Te Kaat has also had to adjust to clients arriving better informed than ever, largely thanks to AI. Rather than seeing that as a threat, she treats it as a starting point for a better conversation.
“Clients often come to me with information they’ve gathered through AI and ask, ‘Is this actually right for my situation?’ That’s where the value of advice comes in,” she says, since even good general information cannot account for lender policy or the specifics of someone’s own financial picture.
On loan structuring, te Kaat is upfront that she does not try to predict interest rates. Instead, she builds in flexibility – sometimes splitting lending across fixed terms, sometimes recommending an offset or revolving credit facility, always anchored to a client’s own goals and cash flow rather than the lowest rate on offer that day.
Looking ahead, te Kaat expects advisers to keep taking on a bigger role in home lending, and technology to keep freeing up time for the conversations she considers the real value of the job. Her ambition for the next 12 months is simple: to keep growing without ever letting a client feel like just another file.
Q: What’s changed in how you work with clients over the past year that’s helped you settle the volume you have?
A: I’ve become even more proactive with communication. I remove the jargon, keep clients informed every step of the way and make sure they always know what’s happening next, which naturally leads to more repeat business and referrals.
Q: How are you helping clients make loan structuring decisions with the interest rate outlook still uncertain?
A: There’s no crystal ball, so I don’t try to predict where rates are heading. Every recommendation comes back to the client’s goals, cash flow and future plans. The right structure isn’t necessarily the one with the lowest rate today.
Brock Shute, director and mortgage adviser at The Mortgage Advice Company in Wellington, has grown his settlements every year he has entered the Top Advisers list. His 2025 figures were 65% higher than the previous year, and he took another 15.1% jump in 2026.
“I’ve always believed that if you genuinely put clients first and consistently deliver on what you promise, the numbers take care of themselves,” he says, crediting a philosophy he has held onto throughout.
That discipline, he says, matters more to his results than the Wellington market itself, which has not seen the same house price growth as some other regions. First home buyer demand held steady through the period, and a wave of bank competition late in 2025, including cashback offers of up to 1.5%, drove strong refinance activity that added to the volume.
Even so, Shute is careful to separate market conditions from what he sees as the real driver of his growth.
“Those market conditions created more opportunities, but you still need the systems, relationships and capacity to deliver a consistently high level of service at that volume,” he says.
Communication sits at the centre of that, doing what he says he will do, keeping clients informed and taking the time to understand their circumstances before recommending a structure, rather than applying a single approach across every client.
A significant share of his business now comes from repeat clients and referrals from past clients and professional partners, which he regards as one of the clearest signs that clients are getting the outcome and experience they are looking for.
That same client-first framing shapes how Shute talks about the wider shift towards mortgage advisers, who he expects could account for around 65% of new lending within the next 12 months.
Borrowers, he says, are moving away from the traditional bank manager relationship because advisers can offer broader advice across loan structure, fixed versus floating strategies, future lending plans and debt reduction, rather than a single lender’s product.
On interest rates, Shute keeps a close eye on economic developments so clients can make informed decisions rather than guessing at the market themselves, although he is clear that loan structuring is never built on a forecast alone.
Every recommendation, he says, needs to reflect a client’s cash flow, future plans and appetite for certainty, so that the structure holds up regardless of how the market actually moves.
Looking ahead, Shute is not chasing a particular number. His focus remains on making sure every client feels supported and has a clear strategy to become debt free as efficiently as possible, a measure of success he expects will keep his business growing through the same repeat clients and referrals that have carried it this far.
Q: The adviser channel is closing in on 60% of all new mortgages in New Zealand. What do you think is driving that shift?
A: Consumers are increasingly moving away from the traditional bank manager model because they recognise that advisers provide broader advice and more choice. It’s no longer just about finding the lowest rate; clients want advice on structure, debt reduction and tax considerations, too.
Q: How are you helping clients make loan structuring decisions with the interest rate outlook still uncertain?
A: My role is to stay across economic developments so clients can make informed decisions rather than trying to guess the market themselves. Every recommendation needs to reflect the client’s cash flow, future plans and appetite for certainty.
For Brenda Murney, mortgage adviser at Vega Mortgages, this year’s result is less a single-year story than a decade spanning one. Murney's settlement value has climbed every year for three years straight in a combined 43.4%, from 2024 to 2025 (12.3%) and 2025 to 2026 (27.6 %). That ranks her 18th nationally and makes her the only profiled winner in this report whose value never dipped across the period.
“I think it’s a combination of experience, relationships and service,” she says. “After more than 20 years in the industry, much of my business comes from repeat clients and referrals, which provided a steady pipeline, even in a slower market.”
Her loan count tells a more complicated version of the same story. It fell sharply from 417 in 2024 to 228 in 2025 before recovering to 384 in 2026, a pattern she attributes directly to market conditions rather than anything in her own business.
“The dip reflected the market at the time, with higher interest rates and fewer people buying investment properties or spending more on their own homes,” she says. Her referral base carried her through it, and when conditions eased, her loan numbers grew again.
Murney sees the same forces behind the wider shift towards mortgage advisers. Borrowers, she says, increasingly struggle to meet every lender’s requirements on their own, and the gap between lenders in policy and appetite has widened.
“Our role is to understand those differences, match clients with the right lender and structure their lending properly,” she says. “That’s why advisers are becoming increasingly important.”
On interest rates, Murney steers clients away from trying to predict the market and towards building in flexibility instead. That often means splitting lending across different fixed terms, and for investors, sometimes across different banks, reducing the risk of everything coming up for refixing, or being tied to a single lender, at once.
“It’s about creating certainty where it matters while keeping options open for the future,” she says.
Looking ahead, Murney expects to keep helping first home buyers and property investors, growing her business while holding the line on the service standard she’s built her reputation on.
Q: What’s changed in how you work with clients over the past year that’s helped you settle the volume you have?
A: I’ve invested in growing my team by taking on a second support staff member, giving me one full-time and one part-time team member. That extra support has allowed me to be more efficient, provide even better service and help more clients without compromising on quality.
Q: Where do you see your business, or the industry, in 12 months?
A: I’m optimistic about the next 12 months. I expect to continue helping more first home buyers and investors achieve their property goals, while continuing to grow my business and maintaining the high level of service my clients know me for.
Scott Jackson, mortgage adviser and franchise owner at Mike Pero Mortgages in Nelson and Tasman, is the highest ranked adviser in the South Island on this year’s list, a fact he hadn’t clocked himself until it was put to him.
His growth has been steady rather than dramatic, climbing 34.9% in 2025 compared to 2024 and then again in 2026 by 29.9%, a trajectory built in a smaller regional market than most of the advisers ranked above him.
Nelson being smaller, he says, means writing far more loans to reach a comparable figure to advisers in the bigger centres. “I’m like a duck, you know, I look really calm, but just treading quickly under the water,” he says.
Nelson carries a genuine disadvantage that Jackson names outright: the region has the lowest average wages in the country. What’s offset that, in his telling, is a first home buyer market that has stayed buoyant throughout, propped up by growing KiwiSaver balances and lending products like the First Home Loan, which only requires a 5% deposit.
With a typical first home in the region priced between $550,000 and $750,000, he says most buyers now have enough sitting in KiwiSaver to get into the market.
That first home buyer focus has compounded over nine years. Jackson has specialised in the segment for most of that time and is now handling second and third purchases for the same clients he helped buy their first homes.
“You do the basics right, you look after them, you hold their hand, you give them good advice and they come back and they tell others,” he says. “That’s why we’ve been doing so well, I think.”
Jackson sees public perception as the real engine behind the adviser channel’s growth to close to 60% of new lending. People have realised, he says, that the process isn’t “too good to be true,” a free, professional service that helps with far more than just securing the loan itself.
On loan structuring, Jackson resists overcomplicating things for clients buying their first home. “Don’t stress if it’s a real simple loan structure, because that could be the perfect solution for you,” he says, favouring simplicity upfront and leaving more sophisticated restructuring for when clients come back to refix a year or two later.
Looking ahead, Jackson expects the broker channel to keep growing because it offers something banks don’t. “That old-fashioned thermos, touch points, someone to call, someone to answer your question on a Sunday afternoon,” he says.
Mike Pero’s standing as New Zealand’s longest running mortgage brokering brand, now 35 years old, helps, he says, but he’s quick to credit local performance over brand recognition alone.
Q: How are you helping clients make loan structuring decisions when the interest rate outlook is uncertain?
A: The first step is to figure out, do you have any preconceived ideas, how do you think you want to put it together? Then it’s just a case of asking the right questions to make sure that their expectation meets reality.
Q: Where do you see your business, or the industry, in 12 months?
A: I think my business is going to continue to grow because we’re going to carry on doing exactly the same things that we’ve done for the last few years. I’d be surprised if we weren’t having a similar chat in a year with the broker percentage numbers a bit higher and my numbers higher, too, because we’re doing things really well and really enjoying it still, which is the main thing.
What actually sets a top adviser apart?
The four experts contributing to this report largely agree that technical competence is table stakes; the real differentiator is trust and empathy. Kip Hanna, CEO of NZHL, says the best advisers “take the time to understand the whole picture, a client’s goals, aspirations and broader financial position,” rather than simply arranging lending.
Callan Wayne-Bowles, head of advisory at Squirrel, puts it more simply: “The best advisers combine expertise with empathy,” adding that “their heart is in the right place, and the other secret, a lot of hard work.”
Hamish Patel, director at Mortgages Online, ties it to consistently exceeding the industry’s minimum standard: “not just with the loan itself, but with their finances more broadly.”
Peter White AM, spokesperson for the Finance Brokers Association of Australia, adds that a broad panel of lenders is also part of the equation, allowing advisers to tailor solutions rather than fit clients into a narrow set of products.
Structuring loans through rate uncertainty
Rather than trying to predict the interest rate cycle, the strongest advisers are structuring loans around each client’s individual goals. Hanna says the most effective advisers help clients “create loan structures that align with their goals and can support them through a range of market conditions,” whether that means flexibility, certainty or paying a mortgage down faster.
Wayne-Bowles agrees that “good loan structuring starts with understanding the client,” describing it as “right-sizing the advice to the client”.
Patel points to a more concrete shift: advisers becoming more open to split, fixed-rate structures and a more disciplined interview process since new regulations bedded in, leading to “better alignment between the loan structure and what the client actually needs.”
Why the adviser channel is closing in on 60% of the market
Patel offers the sharpest framing of this trend, describing the competition between advice businesses and the banks as “almost a David and Goliath story”. Without the marketing budgets of the major banks, he says advisers have grown “by leaving a trail of satisfied clients who refer friends and family”.
White agrees that referrals are doing much of the work, alongside “increased media commentary by advisers and associations, which is deepening the conversations and consumer awareness”.
Hanna frames the same trend from the client’s side, arguing that borrowers are “increasingly seeking independent guidance, greater choice across lenders and advice that reflects their individual circumstances.”
Compliance without losing the client relationship
With the AML/CFT National Strategy taking effect from July 2026, all four experts describe compliance as something to be built into daily workflow rather than treated as a separate burden.
Hanna says leading advisers are “embedding compliance into their day-to-day workflows and leveraging technology to simplify administration,” while White frames it around a thorough Know Your Customer (KYC) process, “essential to meet best practice requirements and ensure streamlined governance”.
Patel takes a more practical view, noting that advisers have learned to “set expectations early,” particularly with trust and company lending clients, where account setup can take longer, and is hopeful the new strategy will speed that process up.
Wayne-Bowles keeps his answer simple: “strong processes, technology and training help ensure obligations are met efficiently and consistently”.
Where AI helps, and where it stops
This is the theme where the four experts converge most closely. Hanna says the opportunity with AI “isn’t to replace advisers, it’s to empower them,” since the technology “can’t replicate trust, empathy or judgement”.
Patel is already seeing AI used to record meetings and turn audio notes into written recommendations and expects the next phase to be less about cost cutting and more about imagination. “I can see that our imagination will be the next ceiling,” he says.
Wayne-Bowles raises a point none of the others touch on: that “strong cyber security and data protection have become critical areas of focus for every advice business” as AI adoption accelerates.
White is the most direct of the four: AI should reduce time spent on repetitive administrative tasks, but “does not, and should never, replace the adviser themselves and the assessment and advice they provide”.
What sustained loan volume signals
Hanna offers the most developed view of what this year’s production numbers really mean, arguing that “volume alone doesn’t make a great adviser, but sustained volume is often a strong indicator of trust and consistency,” built on referral networks, client retention and relationships developed over many years.
Wayne-Bowles frames Squirrel’s own results as a product of the business behind the adviser as much as the individual, pointing to the firm’s investment in “proprietary technology, operational support, lead generation, marketing and our own market leading niche lending solutions”.
Squirrel accounts for 26 of the 147 advisers on this year’s list, by far the largest single brokerage represented – a scale Wayne-Bowles credits directly to that business model rather than any one adviser’s individual performance.
Sentiment among property and lending professionals is cautiously improving heading into the back half of 2026. Cotality’s Decoding 2026 survey found almost three-quarters of New Zealand respondents expect house prices to rise this year, although only 14% expect growth above 5%, reflecting a measured recovery rather than a rebound to prior boom conditions. Interest rate expectations shifted over the same period, adding another layer of uncertainty to how advisers structure loans.
Before the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s November Official Cash Rate (OCR) cut to 2.25%, 54% of property and lending professionals surveyed for the report expected at least one further cut this year. After the announcement, that fell to 43%, with more now expecting rates to hold rather than fall further.
For advisers, that puts a premium on the kind of structuring conversations Hanna and Patel described in the roundtable, helping clients plan around a rate environment that is stabilising rather than reliably falling.
Planning law reform adds a further, longer-term tailwind, with nearly half of survey respondents expecting recent Resource Management Act changes to benefit their region over the next two to three years.
What is NZ Adviser’s Top Advisers report? |
Top Advisers is NZ Adviser’s annual ranking of New Zealand’s highest-performing mortgage advisers, based on the total value of residential loans settled over a 12-month period. The 2026 edition marks the report’s 10th year.
How were the 2026 Top Advisers selected? |
Advisers self-nominated with their settlement figures and aggregator contact details between 1 March 2025 and 28 February 2026. Aggregators verified every submission, and only advisers with a minimum of $50 million in settled residential loans were eligible. 147 advisers made the final list.
Why does the adviser channel keep growing? |
Broker-originated lending now accounts for roughly 60% of all new home loans in New Zealand, an estimate reported in NZ Adviser’s own coverage of the market.
Major banks confirm the trend from their own disclosures. Westpac attributed 58% of its mortgage portfolio to advisers as of March 2026, up from 56.7% six months earlier. ANZ reported 53%, up from 51% two years prior. BNZ attributed 40% of its book to advisers, up from 38% in September 2024.
Industry experts attribute the growth to referrals, broader lender access and rising demand for independent, personalised guidance.
How is the AML/CFT National Strategy affecting mortgage advisers? |
The strategy took effect from July 2026 and moves mortgage advisers from their previous supervisor, the Financial Markets Authority, to a single new regulator, the Department of Internal Affairs, as part of a broader consolidation of AML/CFT oversight. Advisers are responding by embedding compliance into everyday workflows and using technology to reduce the administrative load without slowing down client service.
Will AI replace mortgage advisers? |
None of the experts interviewed for this report believe so. AI is increasingly used to handle administration, meeting transcription and documentation, but every contributor was clear that it cannot replace the trust, empathy and judgement clients still expect from a human adviser.
Why do referrals matter so much to New Zealand’s top mortgage advisers? |
Referrals are the single most common growth driver among this year’s winners, cited independently by four of the six profiled advisers.
Scott Jackson credits his growth to clients who “come back and they tell others.” Laura te Kaat says her business “has grown almost entirely through referrals.” Brenda Murney calls consistent outcomes “the biggest driver of my growth.”
Cameron Muggeridge points to a “strong lift in word-of-mouth referrals” as a major factor behind his team's impressive results.
In April, NZ Adviser launched a call for nominations for its 10th annual Top Advisers report. To be ranked alongside New Zealand’s broking elite, advisers had to provide their contact details and the total value of residential loans they settled from 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026.
Advisers were also asked to provide their aggregators’ names and contact details. All of these aggregators were contacted for verification as part of the ranking process, and only fully verified figures were accepted for the final ranking.
To be eligible, entrants must have settled a minimum of $50 million in total residential loans. After reviewing the nominations, the NZA team selected 147 top performers for the 2026 Top Advisers list. The list took into account only residential loans, and the advisers were ranked in order of the highest value of residential loans settled within the specified period.
