Broker guide
Mortgage Broker Business Plan: Practical Template
When planning a brokerage around capacity, cash flow and costs, use a mortgage broker business plan template to test risks, decisions and milestones.
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A mortgage broker business plan sets out who you’ll serve, how you’ll bring in business and what it will cost to run the brokerage. It also helps you decide when you can afford to hire or expand.
Use the template below to plan your team’s workload and forecast cash flow. The worked example shows how delayed commission and extra staffing costs affect those decisions.
Describe the Brokerage
Start the plan with a short description of the brokerage that names your clients, the loans you arrange, where you work and who owns it. Every later number depends on these choices, so write them down before you build the forecast.
Name the two or three client segments that bring most of your work, such as first home buyers, upgraders, investors or self-employed borrowers. List the services you provide, for example purchases, refinances and construction loans. Record the work you refer to other specialists, including commercial and asset finance.
Note where your clients live and whether you meet them in person or online. That tells you whether the plan needs an office.
State who owns the brokerage and which entity receives the commission, such as a company, a partnership or a discretionary trust with a company as trustee. In a discretionary trust, the trustee decides which beneficiaries receive the income.
If the plan assumes you’ll buy an existing brokerage or a trail book, record that as one ownership assumption. A trail book is a set of loans that still pays trail commission, the monthly payment a lender makes over the life of a loan. Keep the purchase checks separate, and use the guide to buying or selling a mortgage broking business for them.
The fictional example on this page is Northbank Finance, which Mia owns through a discretionary trust with a company as trustee. She arranges purchase and refinance home loans for owner-occupiers and investors in one metropolitan area and meets most clients in person. Northbank’s costs exclude goods and services tax (GST).
Mia’s plan covers her first two hires: a full-time loan processor and a broker named Sam. Sam has under two years’ experience and joins the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), so the budget adds his mentoring and a review of his first files.
Match the Plan to Your Authorisation
Tie the operating model to the credit activities your licence or authorisation covers. To arrange loans, a broker must hold an Australian credit licence (ACL) or be a credit representative of an ACL holder, called the licensee. The MFAA describes aggregators as intermediaries between lenders and brokers that typically hold an ACL and appoint brokers as credit representatives.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says a licensee must make sure its representatives are adequately trained and competent for the credit activities it authorises. Plan that training and supervision before any new segment starts.
Accreditation is the approval a lender gives a broker to lodge applications with it. Moving into an unfamiliar borrower or security type, such as self-managed super fund (SMSF) loans or construction, costs money before it earns any. Budget for training and for accreditation with the lenders that suit the new work.
Before targeting a new client group, check which lenders accept those borrowers and property types. Bulma helps you compare those policies across 52+ lenders. Use that research to plan the lender accreditations your brokerage needs.
Add a budget for pre-lodgement review, where a reviewer checks each new-segment file before you lodge it. Confirm that your authorisation and professional indemnity (PI) insurance cover the new work, then set the segment’s start date after those steps. Mia’s plan stays with the home loans she already writes as a credit representative of her aggregator, so it adds no new segment.
Model Capacity and Revenue
Model revenue from the hours your team can spend on client files. Convert those hours into applications, applications into settlements and settlements into commission on the dates it’s paid. Start with capacity, because it’s the limit a new hire changes.
Count each person’s monthly file hours after appointments, admin, lender calls and training. Divide those hours by the time one application takes in that role. The figures below are Northbank’s fictional assumptions.
| Person (fictional) | File hours a month | Hours per application | Applications a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mia without a processor | 96 | 12 (advice and all processing) | 8 |
| Mia with a processor | 96 | 8 (advice and lender contact) | 12 |
| Sam while mentored | 64 | 8 | 8 |
| Loan processor | 120 | 6 per broker application | 20 |
The table shows why Northbank adds a processor as well as Sam. With the processor preparing each file for lodgement, Mia’s capacity rises from 8 to 12 applications a month.
Research time also uses file hours. Base that part of the forecast on your team’s actual process, including lender-policy checks and review of the shortlist. Reduce forecast hours only after you have measured the work.
To build a mortgage broking team, add each role when the capacity it relieves runs out. Once Sam reaches 8 applications a month, the processor handles 20 and is fully booked. Northbank’s next hire is therefore more processing support.
Work back from applications to appointments. At Northbank’s assumed 50% conversion from first appointment to application, Mia needs 24 appointments a month and Sam needs 16. Plan how those appointments arrive in your mortgage broker marketing plan.
Commission Timing
A salaried broker is paid from their first month, but commission on their first loans arrives later, after settlement and payment by the lender. In Northbank’s forecast, Sam starts in month 1 and his loans first pay commission in month 5, so Northbank pays four months of his salary first.
The MFAA’s broker remuneration factsheet says the commission lenders pay brokers is highly standardised across the market. The table below sets out its terms as at September 2026.
| Payment | When it’s paid | Typical rate and basis |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront commission | When the loan settles, and it can take up to 90 days after settlement to reach the broker | Generally 0.65% to 0.70% of the amount the borrower has drawn, net of any money in their offset account |
| Trail commission | Monthly for the life of the loan, while the loan isn’t in default or more than 90 days in arrears | Generally 0.15%, paid on the outstanding balance net of any offset funds |
| Clawback | When a loan is discharged within 18 months to two years of settlement | The lender takes back some or all of the upfront commission |
ASIC’s March 2017 review of mortgage broker remuneration found that every lender it surveyed paid trail monthly, worked out from a yearly percentage of the ongoing loan amount. Northbank models trail on that yearly basis, at 0.15% a year.
Northbank assumes upfront commission of 0.65% on a $500,000 average loan, which pays $3,250 for each settlement. It assumes that money arrives two months after settlement, inside the MFAA’s 90-day figure.
The MFAA’s factsheet also says you can’t recover a clawback from your client. Plan for clawbacks as a cash event, because the lender can take back commission you’ve already spent.
Sensitivity View
A sensitivity view reruns the base case with slower settlements, a lower settlement rate and an early clawback, first one at a time and then together. Compare each result with a cash floor, the minimum cash you’ll hold before you cut spending. Northbank’s cash floor is $12,500, which is half a month of its regular costs.
| Scenario (fictional) | What changes from the base case | Lowest cash balance | Cash at end of month 6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base case | 75% of applications settle one month after lodgement | $22,000 in month 4 | $67,750 |
| Delayed settlements | Every application settles two months after lodgement | $20,500 in month 5 | $38,500 |
| Lower settlement rate | 50% of applications lodged from month 1 settle | $15,500 in month 4 | $32,000 |
| Early clawback | Three earlier loans are refinanced away and lenders claw back $9,750 in month 3 | $12,250 in month 4 | $58,000 |
| All three together | All of the changes above | $4,250 in month 5 | $9,250 |
Delayed settlements barely move the lowest cash balance, but they cut month 6 cash by $29,250 because each settlement’s commission arrives a month later. The clawback alone takes Northbank to $12,250, below its cash floor.
With all three changes together, cash falls to $4,250 in month 5. Deferring the $12,000 office fit-out until after month 6 lifts that lowest cash balance to $16,250, above the cash floor.
Northbank therefore signs the fit-out contract only after a month 2 check in its controls table. Set a check like this before any large spend in your plan, and rerun the sensitivity view whenever an assumption changes.
Budget Operations
List every cost the brokerage pays each month whether or not loans settle. Give aggregator, software, premises and support costs their own lines, and carry insurance on its own lines in the control budget below. That way you can see which costs move when cash tightens.
The amounts in the table below are Northbank’s fictional figures, not market benchmarks, and exclude GST. Staff costs include the superannuation guarantee (super guarantee), the minimum super an employer must pay for each eligible employee.
| Cost line (fictional) | Monthly amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sam’s salary and super | $5,600 | $5,000 salary plus 12% super guarantee |
| Processor’s salary and super | $5,600 | Same pay basis as Sam, with super paid each payday |
| Aggregator fees | $1,500 | Assumed flat monthly fee of $750 per broker |
| Software | $700 | Customer relationship management (CRM), document collection, e-signature and identity checks |
| Premises | $2,500 | Office rent |
| Marketing | $1,000 | One line from the marketing plan |
| Control budget | $1,600 | Worked below, including professional indemnity and cyber insurance |
| Mia’s drawings | $6,500 | Cash Mia takes out to live on |
| Total | $25,000 |
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) lists a super guarantee rate of 12% for the year from 1 July 2026. Payday Super is the change that requires employers to pay super guarantee for each payday from that date. Northbank pays super with each salary to meet it.
Aggregators charge in different ways, including a flat monthly fee, a share of commission or a mix of both. Model the method in your own agreement, and use this explainer on how mortgage aggregator fees work to compare the options.
The MFAA’s factsheet lists regulatory fees among the costs a broker pays from commission. Its examples include fees for ASIC, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR).
If you hold your own ACL, add the levies credit licensees pay to this table. As a credit representative, add any regulatory fees your aggregator agreement passes on to you.
Worked Control Budget
The control budget pays for the duties that protect your clients and keep the brokerage able to write loans. Northbank carries it from month 1, before Sam’s revenue arrives.
| Control (fictional amounts) | Monthly amount | Why it’s in the plan |
|---|---|---|
| File review | $500 | An external reviewer checks a sample of files each month and Sam’s first files before lodgement |
| Professional indemnity insurance | $300 | Credit licensees must have adequate compensation arrangements, mainly PI insurance under ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 210 (RG 210). Some aggregators provide PI cover, so confirm whether yours covers you or you need your own policy. |
| Cyber insurance | $100 | Cover for a data breach involving client documents |
| Mentoring for Sam | $300 | The MFAA requires member brokers with under two years’ experience to engage a mentor for about two years |
| Continuing professional development (CPD) | $100 | ASIC’s credit representative guidance sets 20 hours of CPD a year for home loan credit assistance. MFAA members declare 30 hours. |
| Document protection | $200 | Secure client document storage and backups |
| Memberships | $100 | ASIC’s guidance says each credit representative must be an AFCA member |
| Total | $1,600 |
Growth spending can move or shrink when cash tightens. Northbank’s growth spending is its $1,000 monthly marketing and a one-off $12,000 office fit-out in month 3. Keep the control budget in every version of your plan, because it pays for the review, insurance and training that protect your clients.
Set Controls and Milestones
Give every risk in the plan an owner, a measure, a review date and the milestone or limit it protects. A milestone must be something you can check on the day.
For example, a milestone of Sam lodging 8 applications in month 3 has a clear answer at the end of month 3. A goal to grow the team has no test.
| Risk (fictional plan) | Owner | Measure | Review date | Milestone or limit it protects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash falls below the cash floor | Mia | Closing cash against the $12,500 cash floor | First business day of each month | Cash above $60,000 at the end of month 6 |
| Fit-out spending | Mia | Month 2 settlements against the forecast of 6 and any expected clawback | End of month 2, before signing the fit-out contract | Cash above the $12,500 cash floor. If settlements run late or a clawback is expected, the fit-out waits until after month 6. |
| Sam’s lender accreditation is slow | Mia | Accreditation with each lender Northbank uses for its client segments | Every Friday until complete | Sam’s first application in month 2 |
| Sam’s files fail review | Mia and the external reviewer | Three clean pre-lodgement reviews in a row | After each reviewed file | Sam lodges without pre-lodgement review from month 4 |
| Early clawbacks | Processor | Loans settled in the past two years that are being refinanced or discharged, and the clawback each would trigger | Monthly | Cash above the $12,500 cash floor, which a $9,750 clawback alone would breach while the fit-out stays in the plan |
| Processor overload | Mia | Applications lodged each month, with recruiting starting after two months at 18 or more | Monthly | Applications stay within the processor’s capacity of 20 a month |
| Tax change | Mia with the accountant | Status of the proposed minimum tax on discretionary trusts | When the bill is introduced or 31 March 2027 if sooner | Forecast updated only after advice |
Review this table with the cash forecast on the same day each month. When a measure misses, record the response and move the milestone date instead of leaving the old date in place.
Complete the Business Plan Template
Copy the template below and fill in the last column for your brokerage. Label every figure as your assumption or a sourced benchmark.
The completed plan is a forecast. When you share it with a partner, a lender or your aggregator, show the assumption behind each figure.
| Plan part | What to record | Northbank (fictional) | Your brokerage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brokerage description | Client segments, services, geography, owner and entity | Owner-occupiers and investors. Home loans for purchases and refinances. One metropolitan area, mostly in person. Mia owns it through a discretionary trust with a company as trustee. | |
| Authorisation and competence | Authorised credit activities, lender accreditations and any new segment’s training and supervision | Credit representative of an aggregator. Mia is accredited with the lenders she uses, and Sam is accredited by the end of month 1. No new segments in this plan. | |
| Team and capacity | File hours per person, hours per application, applications a month | Mia has 96 file hours and needs 8 per application, giving 12 applications. Sam’s 64 hours at 8 each give 8. The processor’s 120 hours at 6 per broker application cover 20. | |
| Pipeline | Appointments, conversion to application, settlement rate, time to settle | Mia needs 24 appointments a month and Sam needs 16, with 50% becoming applications. Of those applications, 75% settle one month after lodgement. | |
| Revenue | Average loan net of offset, upfront and trail rates, payment delay, existing trail | $500,000 average loan. 0.65% upfront and 0.15% a year trail, paid two months after settlement. $4,000 a month from the existing trail book. | |
| Costs | Operating lines, control budget, growth spending | $25,000 a month, including the $1,600 control budget and $1,000 of marketing. Growth spending also includes a $12,000 fit-out in month 3. | |
| Cash | Opening cash, cash floor, closing cash each month | $40,000 opening cash and a $12,500 cash floor. Closing cash for each month is in the base forecast below. | |
| Sensitivities | Delayed settlements, lower settlement rate, clawback, all together | Sensitivity table above | |
| Controls and milestones | Risk, owner, measure, review date, milestone or limit | Controls table above | |
| Tax and structure | Enacted changes in the forecast, proposals on watch, review date | Payday Super is in the forecast. The minimum tax on discretionary trusts is on watch, with a review when the bill is introduced or on 31 March 2027, whichever comes first. |
Northbank’s Assumptions
Every figure in this example is fictional unless it names a source. Replace each one with your own figure before you rely on the forecast.
- Opening cash is $40,000.
- Mia lodged 8 applications a month before the plan. She lodges 8 in month 1 while the processor learns her files, then 12 a month from month 2.
- Sam is accredited by the end of month 1. He lodges 4 applications in month 2, then 8 a month.
- 75% of applications settle one month after lodgement.
- The average loan is $500,000 net of offset. Upfront commission is 0.65%, the bottom of the MFAA’s range, so each settlement pays $3,250.
- Commission arrives two months after settlement, inside the MFAA’s 90-day figure.
- The existing trail book pays $4,000 a month. Trail from new loans is left out, which is about $62.50 a month for each $500,000 loan at an assumed 0.15% a year.
- Costs are $25,000 a month excluding GST, plus the $12,000 fit-out in month 3.
- Income tax and GST payments are left out of this cash forecast. Add them from your accountant’s figures.
Northbank’s Base Cash Forecast
Northbank’s base forecast falls to $22,000 in month 4, then climbs to $67,750 by month 6 once commission from Sam’s first loans arrives in month 5. The lowest cash balance stays above the $12,500 cash floor, so the plan can carry both hires.
Settlements in month 3 are 12, which is 75% of Mia’s 12 applications plus 75% of Sam’s 4. In month 4, Mia’s 12 applications and Sam’s 8 give 15 settlements. Commission received each month is the settlements from two months earlier multiplied by $3,250.
| Month | Settlements | Commission received | Trail | Costs | Closing cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | $19,500 (6 earlier settlements) | $4,000 | $25,000 | $38,500 |
| 2 | 6 | $19,500 (6 earlier settlements) | $4,000 | $25,000 | $37,000 |
| 3 | 12 | $19,500 (6 from month 1) | $4,000 | $37,000 | $23,500 |
| 4 | 15 | $19,500 (6 from month 2) | $4,000 | $25,000 | $22,000 |
| 5 | 15 | $39,000 (12 from month 3) | $4,000 | $25,000 | $40,000 |
| 6 | 15 | $48,750 (15 from month 4) | $4,000 | $25,000 | $67,750 |
Each closing balance is the previous balance plus commission and trail, less costs. In month 3, $37,000 plus $19,500 and $4,000, less $37,000 including the fit-out, leaves $23,500. Build the same table for your brokerage before you commit to a hire.
When Accreditation or File Review Slips
A two-month accreditation delay and a failed file review push the first commission from Sam’s loans from month 5 to month 7. They cut month 6 cash from $67,750 to $36,900, while file review, PI cover and mentoring stay funded.
Suppose two lenders Sam needs don’t accredit him until the end of month 3, so his first applications go in during month 4. His first files, reviewed before lodgement, then fail the external file review.
Northbank keeps pre-lodgement review on every file Sam writes and caps him at 4 applications a month. From month 5 it pays $800 a month more for file review, and the forecast keeps that cost through month 8.
| Milestone | Base plan | Revised plan |
|---|---|---|
| Sam’s first application | Month 2 | Month 4 |
| Sam’s first settlement | Month 3 | Month 5 |
| First commission from Sam’s loans | Month 5 | Month 7 |
| Sam lodges without pre-lodgement review | Month 4 | Month 7 at the earliest, after three clean reviews |
| Cash at the end of month 6 | $67,750 | $36,900 |
| Cash above $60,000 | End of month 6 | End of month 8 |
In the base plan, Sam’s settlements in months 3 and 4 paid $29,250 of commission in months 5 and 6. In the revised plan, his first commission of $9,750 arrives in month 7.
Mia’s 12 applications a month give 9 settlements, so months 5 and 6 each receive $29,250 of commission from settlements two months earlier. With $4,000 of trail and $25,800 of costs, including the extra file review, cash ends month 5 at $29,450 and month 6 at $36,900.
The $60,000 cash milestone for month 6 is missed, so Northbank moves it to month 8. Months 7 and 8 each receive $39,000 from 12 settlements two months earlier, Mia’s 9 and Sam’s 3. That adds $17,200 a month after trail and costs, so cash ends month 7 at $54,100 and month 8 at $71,300.
The lowest cash balance stays at $22,000 in month 4, because Mia’s own loans carry the first four months either way. Lodging files that failed review would put Northbank’s clients and the brokerage at risk, so Northbank moves milestone dates instead. If a revised forecast breaches your cash floor, defer growth spending such as a fit-out first and keep the control budget funded.
Respond to Tax Changes Affecting the Brokerage
When a tax change is announced, list the parts of the brokerage it could touch and check whether it’s law. Then take the records and questions to your accountant before you change the forecast.
A proposal stays on a watch list with a review date, while an enacted rule goes into the forecast. An exposure draft is draft law the government releases for public comment, so it’s still a proposal. Two changes show the difference.
| Change | Status as at September 2026 | Start date | Parts of the plan it touches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payday Super | Law. The ATO says the Payday Super laws have passed Parliament. | Earnings paid from 1 July 2026 | Staff payments and monthly cash timing |
| Minimum tax on discretionary trusts | Announced in the 12 May 2026 Budget. The Treasurer released exposure draft legislation on 3 September 2026, and the ATO says the measure is not yet law. | Proposed from 1 July 2028 | The brokerage entity, trust distributions and owner drawings |
For earnings paid from 1 July 2026, the ATO says an employee’s super guarantee must reach their fund within 7 business days after payday, with longer in some situations. If you pay through a commercial clearing house, a service that passes super payments on to each fund, allow time for it to process the payment. Northbank’s forecast already pays super in the same month as each salary.
A headline that trusts will pay 30% doesn’t tell you what your trust will pay. The Budget explainer on the minimum tax says it would not apply to other types of trust, such as fixed trusts. The proposal would also exclude some income, such as primary production income.
Under the proposal, beneficiaries other than companies would get a non-refundable credit for the trustee’s tax, and company beneficiaries would get none. Rollover relief, which removes the income tax cost of moving out of a discretionary trust structure, is proposed for three years from 1 July 2027.
The exposure draft adds another option. A trust could stay outside the minimum tax by electing to make fixed distributions to beneficiaries it nominates in advance.
Records to Take to Your Accountant
- The trust deed, the trustee company’s details and the list of beneficiaries.
- Distribution resolutions for the past two years, showing who received what, including any company beneficiary.
- Payroll records and super payment dates since 1 July 2026, including your clearing house’s processing time.
- The monthly cash forecast, with drawings or distributions on their own line.
- Your credit representative authorisation and aggregator agreement, so your accountant can see which entity writes loans.
Questions for Your Accountant and Licensee
- Ask whether the minimum tax would apply to your trust as the exposure draft is written.
- Find out which of your current distributions it would affect if it passes in its current form.
- The Budget explainer says salary or wages paid to employees don’t attract the minimum tax. Ask how that applies to family members who work in the brokerage.
- Ask whether the fixed-distribution election or rollover relief is relevant to your trust, and what each would involve.
- Confirm when you’d need to decide on any change and what waiting until the bill passes would cost.
- Check with your licensee and aggregator what they’d need from you if the entity that writes loans ever changed.
Decisions That Wait for the Review Date
List every budget, payment or ownership decision that depends on your accountant’s answer, and give each one a review date. Northbank lists two: whether Mia’s drawings continue as trust distributions and whether the trust signs a five-year office lease or a two-year one. Neither changes before its review date, set at the bill’s introduction or 31 March 2027 if that comes first.
Until your accountant confirms how a proposal applies to your entity, keep running the brokerage on the enacted rules and your current forecast. Put the review date in your controls table so the question comes back on a set day.
