Buy a mortgage broker trail book through the aggregator desk, a finance-business broker or a retiring broker who can assign the book in writing. Trail is paid under the aggregator and licensee contract. A handshake does not transfer it.
Ask the aggregator to confirm the assignment, trail code, lender balances and transfer conditions before paying a deposit. A mortgage broker should buy only the trail that the aggregator will assign to their appointment.
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Steps to Acquire a Trail Book
Assess the Need
Buy only if you hold an appointment that can receive those lenders’ trail and you have capacity to service the clients. A book held under another aggregator may need a transfer deed and new lender appointments.
Confirm that the book sits on an aggregator path you can lodge through today. Plan how you will contact every client with a new Credit Guide after settlement. Measure client retention from the last 12 months of discharges and refinances, then model runoff, clawback and loan amortisation against the trail statements supplied by the aggregator.
Prepare Financially
Budget for the purchase price, legal fees, any aggregator transfer fee and the months trail can take to redirect. A broker overdraft used for living costs can become a consumer credit file of your own.
- Ask the accountant how trail will be taxed after the assignment.
- Keep cash for PI, the aggregator fee and three months of drawings if runoff is faster than the model.
Your accountant can test the purchase model and tax treatment, while your solicitor drafts the sale and assignment documents. Credit authorisation covers credit assistance to clients. Personal advice about a financial product requires the appropriate AFSL authorisation or a referral.
Source Opportunities
Start with the aggregator’s book-sale desk. Then ask a finance-business broker who already closes credit-book deals. Off-market files still need the same transfer letter.
Ask the aggregator for its current succession or book-sale contacts. Networking through professional groups can also uncover retiring brokers and off-market sales.
Require the same aggregator confirmation, trail statements and written sale process for every seller. Record any introduction fee in the transaction documents.
Evaluating Trail Books
Due Diligence
Use this order: obtain the seller’s last 12 trail statements from the aggregator, match them to current loan balances, then read the clawback and runoff clauses. Base the valuation on records the aggregator has confirmed.
Review the lender mix, loan concentration and remaining terms. Account for offset balances that reduce trail. Read the aggregator contract for assignment, notice and trail-after-exit rules.
There is no statutory minimum stay at an aggregator. Notice and trail after exit sit in that contract. Consumer files still need a Credit Guide that names the new licensee.
Negotiation Strategies
Build the price from verified annual trail, expected runoff, loan concentration and servicing cost. Hold back part of the price until the first redirected trail statement arrives.
Have you checked your trail book for missing trail?
Track My Trail makes it easy for brokers to keep track of lost & gained trail, discover clients who have paid off big chunks of their loans, and identify your most profitable clients.
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Tie the payment calculation to confirmed aggregator trail and write who bears clawback on files that refinance in the first year. Put the assignment deed, client-contact plan and PI wording in the same pack. RG 234, reissued 9 June 2026, still applies if you advertise the purchased book to those clients.
Integration Tips
Load the book into the CRM only after the aggregator has changed the trail code. Call each client with the new Credit Guide before you pitch a refinance.
Name who answers the phone in the first 30 days and train staff on the seller’s lender mix before promising a review. A refinance that suits the client can shrink the trail you just bought. Best-interests duty still applies even when a suitable refinance reduces the trail you bought.
Business Expansion Following Acquisition
Contact purchased clients to explain the transfer, provide the required Credit Guide and arrange a service review. Give credit assistance only through the receiving licensee. Refer investment or insurance advice when your authorisation does not cover it.
Cross-Selling Other Services
A review conversation can support client relationships. A scripted “now buy this policy” call is a complaint. Keep the same Credit Guide line you use on the site.
Leveraging Technology
Put the assigned book in the aggregator CRM or customer relationship management tool used by your licensed business. Restrict access to staff who service the book and keep the aggregator trail code with each imported client record.
Building a Strong Team
If you take on the seller’s credit representatives, the licensee records each appointment through ASIC’s Credit Licensee portal. Residential-only PI is a limitation if the book includes commercial trail. Do not put client files on a personal drive.
Marketing and Outreach
Write to the purchased clients as the new broker of record. Do not blast a “we bought your loan” ad that promises a cheaper rate you have not compared. Name the licensee on every piece.
Financial Management
Reconcile the first three aggregator statements to the sale model. If redirected trail misses the model, use the holdback clause. Do not fund drawings from client deposits.
Complete the Assignment Before Paying a Deposit
Get Written Aggregator Consent
The purchase file should contain the aggregator’s written consent, verified trail statements, current loan balances, the sale agreement and the assignment deed. The seller should also provide the client-contact and record-transfer plan.
Ask the aggregator for its assignment checklist before paying a deposit. Make balance confirmation a condition of the sale agreement.
Protect Trail Through Scheduled Client Reviews
Trail dies when clients refinance away or the loan pays down. Service the review date you promised. The purchased book is worth the trail that still arrives after that work.
Send the new Credit Guide before the first review call and log every contact in the CRM the aggregator can audit. You own only the trail assigned by the contract. Ask the aggregator this week whether the book can move onto your appointment.
