We’re looking for experienced self-employed mortgage advisers to join our team

Fort Advice Bureau Limited (FAB) is a directly authorised, independent, whole-of-market firm, exclusively employing self-employed advisors.

Our team comprises many experienced advisors, highly skilled in all aspects of the mortgage and protection business. This includes: technical knowledge of the market; how to do business safely for both our clients and the firm; broad and extensive knowledge of products and providers, and applying that knowledge to solutions.

Our advisors are appropriately qualified for the markets we operate in, including residential, buy-to-let, bridging, and commercial and second charge mortgages. We have a good reputation with customers and providers for being above average, ethical and professional, with reviews and stats to back that up.

For a long time, we were an Appointed Representative (AR) of a large network. However,

large networks often manage perceived risks from member firms by restricting their actions, and this can create barriers to providing the best solutions for clients.

In creating FAB, we looked to create an environment where risk management was based on competency. This means that if you are proficient in a task, and hold the necessary qualifications (in AR, for example), you are authorised to perform it. And, thus, FAB came into being.

Firstly, we’re an advisor-friendly firm. It is always better to work with individuals who like our business environment, and never feel they’re being denigrated, ignored, or undervalued.

Of course, we are a regulated business, and we all have to comply – but there is no reason why the processes and the people monitoring compliance cannot be sensible and approachable. We try to make it a positive experience for everyone who is part of FAB, whether you’re advising or administrating.

Well, we’re looking for all the usual in our advisors. Because we’re a regulated business, we’re looking for a good regulatory lender and insurer track record, and a history for being able to write business.

We’re not seeking perfection, but advisors do have to be of a good standard. This could be somebody that we can work with and help to develop, if necessary, or somebody who’s already expert in all fields. We’re always recruiting – good advisors are hard to find, as most of us know.

Yes, advisors do need to be experienced. Why? The answer is because we’re a distributed work from home business – and that’s not an ideal place for inexperienced advisors or trainees who don’t know their way around the market or how to run their own business.

We are a team of 30 or so advisors now, and when we’re bigger, we will set up an academy to welcome less experienced people, as we believe it is essential that new and younger advisors come to market. Currently, however, we are not able to support trainees well enough—so we need to grow before we reach that stage.

There are always exceptions, however. One example is a very capable new starter who, whilst qualified, had no advisor experience. What they did have was a very good, readable CV and an incredibly strong track record of board-level positions in some of the biggest pension investment mortgage and protection businesses in the UK.

This candidate wanted a change – to build their own business. They wanted to leave the committee-driven world of large corporates for something a bit more dynamic. As a company which allows trading styles, we seemed a perfect fit.

The candidate was smart and quick, so from our point of view they were definitely worth the risk. They’re not the sort of person who needs a lot of immediate support, and we could see through our recruitment process how competent and organised they are – which is part of being a great advisor.

So, from my point of view, that’s a good example of us being a flexible and pragmatic business.

Training for inexperienced advisors is a whole different kettle of fish than that required for those who are experienced. We make sure experienced advisors who come to join us are familiar with and trained in our systems.

We use Smarter365, 27Tech, and lots of other bits and pieces. We’re also members of the Microsoft SharePoint system for sharing documentation.

We don’t provide leads, although we do get some from our website and general awareness of us as a firm – and we do quite a lot of social media.

We used to do quite a lot of pay-per-click leads but after a few years found we were dumbing down advisors. We were taking away the things that make successful advisors – good business antennae, to spot opportunities and chances.

After a lot of debate, we transitioned to a ‘no leads’ environment, where our advisors have to find their own sources of business. It wasn’t easy, but it’s working now, and we’re seeing the benefits that being good at sourcing your own business creates.

The quality of the cases that our advisors do is much better than when we were buying in leads. If we look at our written and recently issued pipeline, we see some very attractive cases coming through these days, where individual case earnings are above £10k, £20k – even £30k. There are a few even larger cases at the moment, which are bridging cases.

It’s quite amazing to see some of the great quality prospects advisors are finding themselves. It’s giving them much more control of where and who they do business with, and a lot more control over the scale of business they do.

Some of these are purely proposition fees, not accounting for any protection fees that might follow. For example, an advisor recently earned £14k from a single bridging case. There’s another in the pipeline which is a £34 million bridge – you can imagine what the earnings are on that.

These results are from advisors who, with our help, have taught themselves how to work on these areas. A few have established their own small bridging firm operating as a trading style under our umbrella, because they see the opportunity.

It’s really nice to see this happening – and much better than a lower quality pay-per-click lead from somebody simply clicking buttons. It wasn’t easy for our advisors, or for us, and it still isn’t easy, but the results seem to be consistently better.

When I started as an advisor, there were no lead systems – you had to find business yourself, and it was always such a buzz when you did. So we’re trying to recreate that, and it seems to be working.

You can find more information on our website (fort-ab.co.uk), and there’s our LinkedIn presence as well; both FAB and I are active on there.

We’re actually running an advisor job on LinkedIn at the moment (September 2025), so submit your CV and we’ll get back to you.

Feel free to give me a call or send an email if you have any enquiries; my contact details are listed on my LinkedIn page. Or you can call our office number (01245 203 495).

We are keen to grow and will certainly get back to you if you’re interested.

We would like to get to somewhere between 50-70 people, which will take us another couple of years – but that’s the size we feel we need to be to become a strong, financially resilient, and influential business [information correct at the time of recording in September 2025].

Being a part of FAB is quite a responsibility – you are expected to manage your business effectively and provide high-quality advice.

That’s not to everybody’s liking – some people just like to be an employee and be given leads, which is also fine. So we won’t suit everybody.

If you would like to know more, please get in touch. Aside from explaining the property proposition, I can put you in touch with our advisors so you can hear directly from the horse’s mouth.