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Wendy Higgins has revealed plans to hand over her billion-dollar business after pocketing her latest award.
Ms Higgins said she considered walking away from the industry after tragically losing her husband last year, but decided against it because she loved her job.
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However, she told The Adviser his loss had made her reassess her life and devise a long-term succession plan in late 2013.
Ms Higgins said she plans to work until at least 2020, when she will be 64. She will retain ownership of the Mortgage Choice Glenelg East franchise in Adelaide but will hand over management to Keith Caine.
The transition will also include two other employees from the eight-staff branch who are planning to retire at about the same time.
“We will bring new staff on, at least two years before that happens, and integrate them into the business, because we all care so much about the business,” she said.
Ms Higgins was named Broker of the Year at the South Australian Better Business Awards last week, while Mr Caine won the Rising Star award.
Ms Higgins said she had amassed a $1.1 billion loan book since opening the franchise in 1998. She added that the office was averaging $21 million of loans per month, with $11.5 million coming from her.
It had taken her three or four years to gain the knowledge and confidence to become an accomplished broker, she said. She attributed her success to excellent staff, passion for the job, a desire to keep learning and to hard work.
“When you say 'hard work' that means long hours, a lot of commitment, not much personal life at the start – you just have to be prepared to do that,” she said.
Ms Higgins told The Adviser that a lot of her business had been built on organising finance for clients who had been rejected by banks.
“If all the banks were the same, we wouldn’t need brokers. We need to find not just the best deal, but often the deal itself – the one deal they can get,” she said.
“It’s the difficult ones that brokers tend to get and [they] need to put them in a format to get approved. They need to look beyond the square and see how to get the loans through.”
