Adviser is the new term for broker, it’s one and the same.

The terminology was changed to better reflect the nature of regulated advice under the Financial Markets Authority ( FMA ) protocols that licensed advisers now operate under.

Not illegal to still call yourself a broker but adviser better represents the work we do now.

• Infinance’s model is set up to onboard you as a client and look after all your needs in relation to finance, mortgage, and insurance whether it be for personal, commercial, or rural applications. This means we get to know your business or personal circumstances well and can provide advice across the board rather than you having to deal with multiple entities to do the same thing.

• Our specialist list of providers can cater to a broad array of requirements so you don’t have to go looking all over and repeating the same process with multiple providers, we do the groundwork for you and present the most suitable options for you to select from.

• Our systems maintain a review strategy to keep up to date with your changing circumstances and can monitor and advise of any shifts in and market opportunities that may be relevant to you … we’re like your buddy with your best interests at heart.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) was established as an independent crown entity to regulate financial markets. This means that all Financial Services Providers must be licensed and registered on the Financial Service Providers (FSP) Register and operate to a set of standards for ethical conduct and can be held accountable if in breach. This gives a layer of protection to you ensuring your adviser has your best interests at heart, is competent and ethical, and maintains appropriate levels of skill. Infinance is a licensed Financial Services Provider, FSP # is 1004527. Advisers are also Licensed Financial Advisers, see our disclosure statement for details.

A licensed financial adviser works for you and is not tied to any one lender. They will give you access to far more lenders and potentially more attractive loan terms than you would find as an individual applicant. With approximately 40% of all mortgages written by advisers and continually growing year on year it’s a well-established industry in NZ.

Infinance approaches your loan from another angle. We work to match your needs to the products of a large range of lenders and we act for you, not the lender.

In addition, the high volumes of loan business processed nationally by Link Financial Group with Infinance is an Authorised Body (able to tap into their facilities ) gives us more influence to negotiate the best overall package, including fee reductions, interest rate discounts, useful contributions to legal costs, and reduced banking costs.

We remove the stress and save you time and money.

We are not aligned with any lender which means we can help you sort out the positives, as well as the negatives, involved with mortgage financing. Issues like establishment costs, banking fees, legal contributions, and service all contribute towards a good mortgage lender. We do deal with the non-bank lenders and we are finding that sometimes the mortgage packages they offer are more advantageous to certain clients than trading bank lending packages. We make recommendations to you based on our research, experience, and knowledge. However, the final decision about who you wish to borrow from will always be yours.

An offset account is an everyday bank account that's linked to your home loan. You can deposit your salary and savings into the account and the balance is then offset against the amount owing on your home loan with the immediate effect of saving you money.

This is another lender differential - some lenders will allow you to make extra payments, or lump sum principal mortgage payments, off your fixed rate loan without penalty and others won't. When we are advising clients on mortgage options this issue is always covered as we believe it is better to have the option to pay extra during your fixed rate term.

More people are presently choosing a split option between floating (variable) rate and fixed interest rate on their house mortgages. However, this does depend on your lender, as some will let you make extra payments off your fixed rate - so why have it split?

The reason for taking a floating rate is primarily to give you the flexibility for increasing your payments. In today's market the floating rates are higher than the fixed rates so we usually calculate how much you can pay and then structure your loan accordingly.

Most lenders allow you to restructure your mortgage on your fixed interest rate maturity so any floating rate / fixed rate adjustments can be made then.

Each lender has vastly different criteria, and quite often, while you may not qualify with one bank, you may easily fit the criteria of another. We are aware of the differing lending criteria and are able to assist you in choosing the most appropriate lender for your individual circumstances.

When purchasing a residential property or investment property, there is no extra cost to you the client. The lender that approves your loan pays us for successful applications. If we do need to charge a fee for any reason, you will be advised before we begin any work for you. The lenders pay us for the work we do in preparing loan applications and providing accurate information. The lenders do not charge clients extra for using a mortgage adviser - in fact, some lenders give clients of ours better deals than they would get directly. There are no hidden costs.