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Sydney-based brokerage Equilibria Finance has restructured its leadership team, appointing Doug Mathlin as its new head of broker.
Equilibria Finance, a leading Sydney-based brokerage headed up by managing director Anthony Landahl, has welcomed industry stalwart Doug Mathlin to its team as its new head of broker.
Mathlin, who has 30 years of experience in the finance space - including extensive experience in the broker channel - joined the brokerage in July 2024 as its new head of broker.
Over his career, Mathlin has held a range of positions in the broker channel, including as the national training manager at Aussie Home Loans (1995-1998), head of partnerships at personal lender MiFund (2015-2018), as a debt advice specialist at AMP, (2018-2020) and - most recently - as a business development manager connective brokers with private lenders at IDM Corp.
In his new position, Mathlin is tasked with helping the brokerage, and each of its brokers, grow.
Speaking to The Adviser about the appointment, Anthony Landahl, managing director of Equilibria Finance, explained that the traditional model of individual brokers managing all aspects of their business is becoming increasingly challenging.
"The complexity involved in broking, navigating the compliance, the lender landscape, bringing the leads in, developing all the relationships, is time consuming. Traditionally, a lot of brokers have just been by themselves doing all of that.. but more and more going brokers are looking at tapping into the infrastructure that's been built to help them with their marketing, their leads, and help them with delivering the administration," Landahl said.
"We've now built a three-pronged leadership team; I'm managing the leads, marketing and business branding. Doug is heading up our broker team and focused on building our and retaining our broker team. And then we've got Kristina [Hollan] as head of broker services, who is building and delivering the broker support, the admin, and managing the compliance and building efficiencies."
The new structure aims to help ease the work burden on brokers - and attract new brokers through a combination of cultural and practical advantages, Landahl said.
"A couple of our brokers have just had two or three weeks annual leave, and they haven't checked any emails, mobile phones or anything like that, because the system's looked after it," Landahl stated. "So we're really trying to build up that sort of offer, because we see that broking more and more is going that way, where it isn't possible to take a break."
Doug Mathlin told The Adviser he was excited by his new role, emphasising the importance of being "on the tools" to understand the day-to-day challenges faced by brokers.
"I really need to be on the tools as a broker so I can get in the weeds and I know exactly what the problems are," Mathlin said.
"As a coach, before I joined Equilibria, it was very easy to talk about things in theory… but you need to see it first hand. You need to know the niches of each lender and how to fix a client’s issue but you also need to think big picture.
"So, being on the tools helps me have a better picture of how we grow the Equilibria business as a whole, but also how we grow each broker’s business within it. Each broker is trying to build their book and their referrers and their client base. So there are a lot of moving parts. And sometimes you just need someone who can distil those problems and simplify them."
Mathlin's role focuses on providing personalised support and accountability to the brokers within the team.
"Every week, I do a one on one with our brokers, and they've all got a different goal and ambition... One of them is really focused on building referral relationships," he explained.
"So it's still very coaching focused. And we have that accountability about what we're going to do on a week-to-week basis."
Mathlin added: “The main thing for me is the individual growth. If we can all individually grow year on year to our full potential, that will be a good result for the brokers and for the business as a whole.”
Equilibria Finance currently has five brokers, with plans to expand.
Landahl commented: "We're about to go out to market looking at recruitment of more brokers, but also looking at another acquisition, whether it's of a business which might bring some brokers or of a book to bring into the business," Landahl revealed.
"And now, we've built our infrastructure so we can grow."
Landahl stressed the importance of proactive planning and strategic investment in building the business.
The company's vision for the future involves continued growth and consolidation. "The next 12 months is settling the leadership team in," Landahl stated. "We'll have another one or two brokers, and we're also looking at another acquisition, and our existing team, as importantly, is retained and growing it."
Equilibria Finance's strategic realignment comes as more brokerages look to bring in more head-office support. Whether its general managers to run the operations, business coaches to review the business from an outsider’s perspective, or merging with other establishes businesses, the broker model seems to be increasingly moving away from one-man band operations.
[Related: Are the days of the single operator broker numbered?]
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