Laurie Wills, of Awesome Mortgages in Kerikeri, says no departure is imminent and he will probably try to stay within the industry in some form or other.
But he is fed up with having to worry about the regulator more than the client.
And he fears any similar trend by other mortgage advisers will reduce choice for the public.
Wills entered the banking industry as a 15-year-old and became a manager after three years. He later gained an MBA with distinction and has spent 22 years as a mortgage adviser, half of them with Awesome Mortgages.
But now he is thinking of quitting.
“It's a great industry to be in, but everyone is just making it too damned tough,” he said.
“It's too damned tough when most of the stakeholders that need to be kept happy are based on compliance,” he said.
“It's not about customer outcomes, it's compliance. In my business, who should be king? It should be my customer, my clients. Anything and everything I do should be for their best interests.”
But Wills says that is no longer the case. His departure from the industry is not just around the corner but it is being considered.
“It's not a cop out, when you have been in the industry as long as I have you become incredibly nuggety, you become incredibly resilient, you become incredibly tough at what you do.
“I don't feel that I've had enough (of this business), I just feel we have got it wrong, and it's the poor old consumer, sadly, that is ultimately going to be impacted by it.”
When he finally does go, Wills will take some good memories with him.
“A number of my clients have said to me over the years, you know what, working with you, Laurie, has not been transactional, it has been transformational, it has transformed what we have been able to do.
“And that was done in an era when we did not have all of the compliance nightmares that we have now.”
Wills says there have always been some wrong people in the industry. An easy way to get rid of them would be for banks to not deal with mortgage advisers who were not the sort of person they themselves would hire for a job. That would have been far more efficient than designing complex compliance rules.
“The only thing that is going to happen now is that we are going to see good people like me leave the industry and we are going to see the poor old consumer with less choice.”
