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Last year’s Australian Broking Awards' (ABA's) Broker of the Year used his $10,000 prize to help fund the future growth of the third-party channel.
Greg Wells, director of Parramatta-based Wells Partners/Mortgage Link Group, was named Broker of the Year at The Adviser’s annual awards ceremony in 2015, a title that came with a cheque for $10,000 from the Commonwealth Bank.
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Following his win, Mr Wells told The Adviser that the cash would fund prizes for finance and business students at Western Sydney University in the hope of attracting new talent into the broking industry.
While initially thinking the money would help fund a family holiday to Hawaii, Mr Wells said he and his fellow directors contemplated ways to put the money to good use and decided upon a scholarship-style arrangement with UWS.
“Domenic [Corigliano], who is my youngest director [and an] ex-dux of the university, said 'Why don't we do this?' which touches on… recruiting and trying to look at new, younger blood etc, so we adopted that suggestion,” Mr Wells said.
According to Mr Wells, recruiting talented young people has been a core focus for the broking industry in recent years. While suggesting that, anecdotally, the average broker age is falling, Mr Wells said there is still more that can be done to promote broking as a career choice among university students.
“I think we're competing as an industry against the likes of banks, so I guess it's about selling more the concept of broking as an industry and trying to highlight the growing demand there is for people in a marketplace that is growing,” Mr Wells explained.
“Unless you work in the industry, you're probably naive to [the fact] that broking is now such a dominant part of distribution.”
Now in their sixth year, the Australian Broking Awards are the only industry accolades that solely recognise the nation’s leading brokers, brokerages and aggregation groups.
This year’s luncheon event, thanks to principal partner Commonwealth Bank, will see individuals and corporates vying for top honours across 24 categories, including the coveted Broker of the Year, Major Brokerage of the Year and Aggregator of the Year awards.
The winners of the 2016 Australian Broking Awards will be revealed at The Star, Sydney on Friday 1 July.
For full details on the Australian Broking Awards, click here.
[Related: Award-winning broker on track to double his business]
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