Why an annual review
Most trail is lost between reviews, not during them. A client who hears from their broker once a year, with a specific look at their loan and a clear recommendation, rarely refinances elsewhere; the ones who leave are the ones nobody called. An annual review is the minimum cadence that keeps a broker in the conversation, and it is the anchor for the event-driven contacts that matter more: fixed-rate expiries, interest-only conversions and rate drift.
A review is also credit assistance if it ends in a recommendation to stay, reprice or refinance, which means the best interests duty applies. That is not a burden; it is a reason to run the review the same way every time and to write down why the recommendation served the client.
Before the review
The review is short if the preparation is done. For each client, assemble:
- Every loan they hold, the lender, the balance, the rate, and the settlement date, from your commission file.
- The fixed-rate expiry and interest-only conversion dates, from your records.
- The lender's current pricing for the same product and a comparable competitor rate.
- Whether the loan is still inside its clawback window and when that closes.
- Any changes you know of: a property purchase, a new job, a family change, a query about a payout figure.
- Last year's review notes and what you recommended.
Send the client a two-line email a week ahead: the date of the review, what you will cover, and a request for anything that has changed. Half of the useful information arrives in the reply.
The checklist
The loan. Rate versus the lender's new-customer rate for the same product. Rate versus a competitor. Repayment type and whether it still suits. Offset and redraw usage. Any fees the client is paying that they no longer need.
The dates. Fixed-rate expiry within 12 months: schedule the 90-day contact now. Interest-only conversion within 12 months: model the repayment jump and discuss options. Clawback window closing: note that a refinance after that date has no cost to you, which removes any conflict from the recommendation.
The client. Income or employment change. Plans to buy, sell, renovate or invest. Family changes. Cash-flow pressure, especially any missed or late repayments, which the commission file will show as arrears. Insurance and estate arrangements are outside your scope but worth a referral.
The structure. Does the number of loans, the split between owner-occupied and investment, and the lender mix still serve the client. Is there equity that has grown and should be recorded.
The recommendation. Stay as is, reprice with the current lender, re-fix, or refinance. One of the four, with the reasons and the comparison recorded in the file.
After the review
Lodge the reprice request or the application the same day. Send the client a summary of what was discussed and what happens next, in plain language, with the dates. Update the review record with the outcome and diarise next year's review and every trigger date inside it. Move the client on your retention board so nothing is left in an open stage.
If the outcome was a reprice, confirm the new rate against the next commission statement. Lenders occasionally apply the discount to the wrong account, and the statement is where it shows.
What does a review routine save?
Run-off is the share of your book that leaves each year. Set yours and see what it takes out of your trail, compounding year on year.
The three messages
Most of a review programme is three short messages, sent on a schedule, and they are worth writing once and reusing.
The invitation, a week ahead: the date, the three things you will cover, and a request for anything that has changed. Keep it to four lines; the reply is the point.
The summary, the same day as the review: what you looked at, what you recommended and why, what happens next and by when. This is the document that shows the best interests duty was met, and it is the one the client forwards to a friend.
The follow-up, when the outcome lands: the confirmed new rate, or the settled refinance, in one line, with next year's review date. It closes the loop and it is the last thing the client remembers about the year.
Send them from your own brand where the aggregator allows it. A message that looks like the lender's marketing gets treated like the lender's marketing.
Scheduling reviews across a whole book
A book of 200 loans is roughly 150 clients, which is three to four reviews a week across a working year. Spread them by settlement anniversary rather than by calendar, so the load is even and each review lands roughly twelve months after the last. Then overlay the event-driven contacts, which do not wait for the anniversary: fixed expiries and conversions get their own 90-day trigger regardless of when the last review was.
The bottleneck is generating the list, not doing the reviews. Software that reads the commission file and holds the trigger dates produces the list every Monday; without it, the preparation step is where most review programmes stall. Either way, the checklist above is the same, and it is the consistency that clients notice.