How to Choose a Broker Aggregator: What to Ask Before You Sign

Most brokers choose an aggregator once, on the strength of a split and a demo, then live inside that decision for a decade. The split is the number everyone negotiates. The broker agreement is the document that decides what you actually keep.

The choice carries more weight than it used to. The broker channel now accounts for the majority of lending origination across asset finance, personal loans and business lending, and the aggregator you sit under determines your panel, your fee structure and your compliance framework. It is not a back-office decision. It is the infrastructure you write every deal through.

The FBAA puts it plainly: an aggregator is the most important business partner a broker will have. Beyond paying you for each settled loan, it should give you lender panel access, back your business development, and keep you across your legal and compliance obligations. The technology stack matters too: a platform that helps you lodge faster, track deals clearly and grow your book without adding admin is a genuine competitive advantage. One that gets in the way is a cost you pay every day. That is a lot of surface area to assess from a sales meeting.

The MFAA publishes a Choosing an Aggregator checklist, last updated in March 2025, and it is the most useful starting point in the industry precisely because it is not a sales document. What follows is where experienced brokers say the real differences sit.

The split is the smallest part of the fee conversation

The MFAA checklist names eight fee lines before it reaches a catch-all: a joining fee, an annual fee, a lead fee, a compliance fee covering things like external dispute resolution membership and professional indemnity insurance, software fees, monthly service or admin fees, marketing or branding fees, and commission splits or deductions. Then it adds "other fees", which is where the surprises live.

Two questions from that checklist do most of the work. First: is the rate quoted net or gross of what the aggregator retains? A generous-sounding percentage quoted gross of retention is a different business to the same percentage quoted net. Second: how often is commission paid, and can it be split to accommodate referrers? If you run a referral network, an aggregator that cannot split at the source turns every referral into a manual reconciliation. Under some branded models, the aggregator pays referral partners directly on your behalf, removing that admin entirely.

The reporting question is the one brokers skip and later regret. Ask whether commission reports include upfront and trail exception detail, so you can see payments that went missing or stopped rather than discovering a gap at tax time.

Your licensing position sits underneath the aggregator choice

The checklist asks whether you have the option to be a credit representative or a licensee, and whether compliance support is offered if you go your own way. That single question decides how much of the regulatory load you carry.

ASIC's Information Sheet 126 sets out how the credit representative model works. Credit representatives are authorised to engage in specified credit activities on behalf of a credit licensee, and can be authorised for some or all of the activities the licence covers. A body corporate credit representative may, with the licensee's written consent, sub-authorise a natural person to engage in credit activities on behalf of the licensee, and must give written notice to any person it sub-authorises. ASIC is explicit that no other form of sub-authorisation is permitted under the National Credit Act.

There is a detail in there worth reading twice: sub-authorised representatives are regarded as credit representatives of the licensee, not of the corporate credit representative. If your plan is to bring on a second writer inside your own company, the aggregator's licensing structure is not an administrative footnote. It determines whether that growth path exists at all under their arrangement, and licensees must notify ASIC when they authorise or sub-authorise.

The reference you leave behind now follows you

ASIC's updated reference checking and information sharing protocol commenced on 20 August 2024. While ASIC's language refers to mortgage broking intermediaries, the principle extends across broking: aggregators can now obtain references on broker licensees and their representatives. Requesting those references is discretionary rather than mandatory.

The practical read for brokers is simple. How you exit an aggregator is now a checkable part of your professional record, not a private commercial disagreement. Leave the way you would want described.

The panel question asset finance writers get wrong

Panel size is the headline metric every aggregator leads with, and it is close to meaningless on its own. The MFAA checklist asks the better version: does the panel suit your needs across consumer, commercial, equipment and car finance, and can you access lenders outside it?

A panel of sixty lenders that is mostly consumer is a panel of a dozen for someone writing commercial equipment and vehicle deals. Before you sign, count only the accreditations you would use in a normal quarter, then ask what the process looks like when a deal needs a lender who sits outside the panel.

What happens when you leave

The MFAA checklist asks brokers to read the termination and exit clauses before they sign. For finance brokers outside mortgage, there is no trail book to protect, but the exit terms still matter: notice periods, restraint of trade clauses, whether you can take your client relationships with you, and what happens to deals in your pipeline at the point of departure.

Sitting alongside that is financial stability. The checklist asks whether the aggregator is financially strong enough to keep paying commission, whether you have reviewed their financial statements, and what protections exist if they default through liquidation or fraud. Your business depends on theirs staying solvent, whether or not you have priced that risk.

Branded vs non-branded aggregation

One decision that sits above fees and panels is the aggregation model itself. In a branded model, you operate under the aggregator's brand, its marketing, its client-facing identity. In a non-branded model, you run your own brand while the aggregator provides the infrastructure, panel access and compliance support behind the scenes. Both models give you direct ownership of your client relationships.

Branded aggregation is built for brokers who want to move from employed to self-employed without needing the capital or experience to launch entirely on their own. You get an established name, shared marketing, lead flow and a turnkey client experience from day one, so you can focus on writing deals while the brand works behind you. Non-branded aggregation is for brokers who want to create their own brand from scratch, generate all their own leads and run all their own marketing. You get the same quality of panel, compliance and infrastructure, but the business you build carries your name and your identity. The right answer depends on where you are in your career and how much of the go-to-market you want to own.

What to do next

Ask for the broker agreement before you take the platform demo, and read the termination and trail clauses first. A group that will not send the agreement until you are ready to sign has told you something. Then build a one-page table with every fee line from the MFAA checklist down the side and each shortlisted aggregator across the top, and make them fill in the blanks in writing.

Finally, ask to speak with two brokers: one who joined in the past twelve months, and one who writes your asset class rather than the group's flagship product. The first tells you whether onboarding matched the pitch. The second tells you whether the panel works for the deals you actually write.

Emu Money offers branded aggregation for asset finance brokers, with a broad lender panel, fast settlements and support from people who understand commercial and vehicle deals. Access Lending Group offers non-branded aggregation for brokers who want to build under their own name with the same quality of infrastructure behind them. Whether you want an established brand or your own, both are built for brokers who write asset finance.