Taken from The Intermediary, 11th April 2024

While the ebbs and flows of the mortgage market over the past year have impacted customers significantly, mortgage advisers continue make themselves vulnerable in helping their customers.

This is according to Rob Sinclair (pictured), chief executive at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), who spoke to Pepper Money in a video for the lender’s Specialist Lending Study.

Sinclair said: “We’re asking advisers to give part of their soul or their personality to help the customer open up.

“That then makes them vulnerable. That implies they will be stressed in that environment.”

He continued: “We’re not great, as people, talking about the stresses of the job.

“We’re not good at putting our arms around people and being open about how hard the job is sometimes.

“We need to be better at that. There’s a group of people trying to work on this in the sector and as part of the work that AMI has been doing under the Working in Mortgages banner, we are very open and empathetic to try to find a better way of doing that.

“We need to understand that this job can be difficult for people and it’s not a bad thing to be fragile.

“We have to understand that people can and should open up, but we have to protect them when they do that.”

Paul Adams, sales director at Pepper Money, added: “We know that mental health and finances are intrinsically linked, and that’s not just when it comes to our customers.

“Rob Sinclair’s comments in our video shine a light on the stresses experienced by advisers and we all have a responsibility to look out for each other, with sensitivity and compassion.”