To switch mortgage aggregators in Australia, establish your contractual exit date, secure the new arrangement and confirm trail treatment before giving notice. Then coordinate your authorisation, lender accreditations and client records so active files keep moving.
You can change aggregators when your agreement allows it. When a broker moves between aggregators, client data and commission history need a planned transfer. Lender accreditations, software access and trail payment arrangements require separate confirmation, even when both groups use familiar systems.
Read Your Current Agreement Before Anything Else
Read your signed aggregator contract and every later variation before setting a departure date. Build an exit checklist from the clauses that affect your income and ability to work.
- Record the notice period, how you must deliver notice and who must receive it.
- Identify any initial term, renewal window and exit or termination fee.
- Find what happens to trail on loans written under the old agreement. Separate your right to receive trail from permission to transfer its administration.
- Check who bears clawbacks after exit and whether the aggregator can deduct them from later payments.
- Read restraint and non-solicitation clauses for restrictions on clients, staff or your next arrangement.
Write down the earliest lawful exit date and the conditions behind it. If an ambiguous clause changes that date or puts ongoing trail at risk, get advice on that clause before serving notice. Get legal advice on a restraint that affects your proposed departure.
Keep a copy of the agreement and a loan-level commission report. If the move also involves a sale, the guide to buying a trail book explains the separate consent and transfer questions.
Minimum Stay, Notice and Trail Terms
ASIC does not set a minimum stay with an aggregator. Your notice period, any initial term and the agreement’s exit clauses determine when you can leave and the cost of doing so.
A notice-only agreement has no initial lock-in term. A fixed-term agreement, for example one with a 12- or 24-month initial term, can attach fees or retained trail to early departure. Read the notice clause alongside the initial term. Finishing the term does not necessarily remove the duty to give notice.
For a hypothetical notice-only agreement, compare the effect of 30 to 90 days’ notice on your departure plan. Those durations are examples, not a legal standard. Connective’s published full member agreement has a 30-day termination notice clause. Your signed agreement controls your own departure.
Serve notice only once you have the new appointment arrangement and a written position on trail transfer. Ask for a trail-transfer letter that identifies the loans, who will pay you and when any change takes effect. Record deductions, ongoing servicing obligations and the treatment of loans still inside a clawback period.
There is no national two-year experience rule for joining an aggregator. ASIC requires appropriate training and competence. An aggregator or lender can apply its own entry, mentoring or accreditation requirements, so an individual group’s experience condition does not create a national minimum.
Cover the Regulatory Requirements
Coordinate the old and new credit authorisations before changing the channel for active applications. First establish whether you hold an Australian credit licence (ACL) or are a credit representative under another licensee.
When your credit representative appointment changes, the appointing licensee must notify the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) within 15 business days. Section 71 of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 sets that deadline. ASIC’s appointment form is CL30.
The old appointment’s cessation must be notified within 10 business days. ASIC confirms both periods in its credit notification guidance. These are reporting deadlines after the event. They do not give you permission to work during a gap in authorisation.
Confirm current Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) membership before the new authorisation starts. Update the licence and representative details in your client documents where the change requires it.
The recruiting licensee must take reasonable steps to obtain the required references before authorising you. Provide written consent so it can use the templates in ASIC Information Sheet 257: ASIC Reference Checking and Information Sharing Protocol. Informal conversations about a broker’s reputation do not replace that process.
Map every active application to its current accreditation and licensee. Agree who handles it through settlement and obtain any required lender approval before changing its submission channel.
Can You Use Two Aggregators at Once?
You can work with two aggregators only where both agreements, your licence arrangements and lender accreditations allow it. A temporary overlap during a switch still needs those permissions.
Read both agreements for exclusivity, minimum volume and data ownership. Identify which group controls each lender accreditation. Obtain written confirmation for any overlap that the terms do not clearly permit.
For a credit representative of two unrelated licensees, each licensee must consent to the other authorisation. ASIC explains the related-body exception and notification requirements in Information Sheet 126: Credit Representatives.
Set these controls before the first application goes through the second group.
- Keep one client record as the source of truth and define how updates reach the other system.
- Log which aggregator receives each application and who is responsible for the file.
- Reconcile each commission payment under the agreement that generated it.
- Apply the same compliance review to applications through either group.
- Limit staff access to the systems and records each person needs.
Allow for duplicated fees and staff training. If the second membership adds no useful panel access or service, agree an end point for the overlap.
Keep old and new commission books identifiable while you reconcile them. Track My Trail’s Elite Suite combines up to five aggregators or trail books, viewed together or one at a time. That helps you review combined income while retaining a separate view of each book.
Evaluate the New Aggregator on Evidence
Use your own settlements and active files to confirm that the new aggregator can support the move. If you still need a shortlist, compare mortgage aggregators before negotiating departure dates.
Match the lenders you actually used over the past 12 months against the new group’s lender panel. Confirm your access to those lenders, including any accreditation that needs a fresh application. Obtain a written commission split and fee schedule at your settlement volume.
Ask for a technology demo with your own sample file, using anonymised data. Follow it from a client record through an application and commission reporting. Confirm which documents and fields the destination can import, and which tasks staff must rebuild.
Get written answers on the licence holder, transition support and data export. The transition answer must name a contact and response arrangements. The export answer must explain what you can retrieve if you later leave, including documents and commission history.
Move Client Data Lawfully
Transfer only client information you are entitled to move and use secure channels with restricted access. Export permission under a contract and lawful handling of personal information are separate checks.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) explains Australian Privacy Principle 11. It requires reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Create a permitted backup before importing. Keep it protected while you validate the transfer, then apply the relevant retention and deletion rules. The outgoing provider might also need to retain records for its own lawful obligations.
- Map client identifiers and loan references so the same borrower and facility remain linked.
- Move the available documents and history, then list any missing attachments or fields for manual recovery.
- Rebuild pipeline stages, staff assignments and follow-up tasks that the import does not carry across.
- Reconcile settlement dates and trail figures against source documents, including the final old-group report and the first new-group report.
For each sampled file, expect the same client, loan reference and settlement date in both systems. Explain every trail difference by its payment period, agreed split or deduction before relying on the migrated figures.
If a check fails, pause reliance on the affected imported records and correct them from the protected source copy. Keep the export and source reports until the checks pass. Once information is no longer needed, confirm deletion from exited systems unless a law or court order requires retention.
Keep Clients Steady Through the Change
Tell active clients that changing your aggregator does not change their existing loan contract. Explain any change to your contact details or who will handle their application.
Name one transition contact and honour every committed follow-up. Keep a list of applications awaiting documents, approval or settlement, with an owner and next action for each. Before the old access ends, confirm the new team can retrieve the documents needed to meet those commitments.
For a file that must remain with the old group through settlement, agree its handoff in writing. Give the client a clear contact throughout that period and continue the follow-ups already promised.
Your First Move Tonight
Open your current aggregator agreement and mark the notice period, earliest exit date, trail treatment and restraint clause. Add the trail-transfer letter to your departure file and record any exit fee or clawback liability beside it.
Use that file to agree the new appointment and the handoff of active applications. Once the appointment arrangement and written trail position are in hand, serve notice through the method your agreement requires.
Take Your Data and Statements With You
Download your past commission statements before access to the old aggregator ends. Export the client records and CRM data you are entitled to take, including the documents needed for active applications.
Read the agreement’s data ownership and exit clauses before requesting the exports. Get written confirmation of which records you can retain, how to obtain them and how long access lasts after departure. Arrange the exports before the access deadline, even if the new system is not ready.
Keep the original statements and a protected copy of each permitted export. Check that the statement files open and cover the months you requested. Compare exported client and loan counts with the old CRM, then record any missing documents or fields for recovery while you still have access.
Load the past commission statements into Track My Trail, which imports statements from every aggregator named in this guide. Keep the old and new books identifiable so you can compare the imported trail figures with the source statements during the switch.
