Broker Advocacy, Innovation, And Survival In 2025

Originator Connect in Las Vegas is one of the mortgage industry’s premier broker conferences — a gathering built to deliver wholesale channel insights, policy updates, and competitive strategies straight from the leaders shaping the broker community.

This summer, the Broker Action Coalition (BAC) arrived with something rare in mortgage politics: momentum. After years of broker frustration over credit bureaus selling borrower data to competitors, Congress had finally passed a bill to ban trigger leads. With the legislation awaiting the president’s signature, BAC’s leaders used the conference not to claim victory, but to warn brokers that the real work is just beginning.

“This feels like a truly agnostic broker event,” said Brendan McKay, Co-Founder and Chief Advocacy Officer of BAC, as he took in the packed expo floor. “It’s not flying one lender flag or the other. We need more of that.”

That same spirit of unity — rare in an industry often divided by channel, business model, and association loyalties — carried BAC from a fledgling grassroots group to a coalition powerful enough to get Washington’s attention. Now brokers and advocacy leaders shift their focus towards new battles concerning LO compensation rule changes, tech-savvy mortgage servicers, and the ever-evolving housing market.

Broker Advocacy Proves Its Strength

Rachel Clark, Executive Director of BAC, said the trigger leads legislation was unlike anything the industry had seen in years. 

“This was one of the first industrywide pieces of legislation that everybody supported,” she explained. “From BAC to the MBA, NAMB, and even consumer advocacy groups — you don’t typically see so many different organizations come together in one push.”

But unity didn’t come easily. Most brokers wanted a complete ban, but to achieve broad support, BAC and its allies negotiated exceptions, such as allowing access to leads when there’s an existing borrower relationship. “As an industry, you have to give and get,” Clark said. “The big point for us was stopping the sale of data at the credit bureau level. If you turn off the selling, the buying doesn’t matter.”

By reframing the problem, BAC shifted enforcement from thousands of lenders, brokers, and lead shops to just three credit bureaus. “That’s a much easier compliance point,” Clark said.

Technology To Replace Trigger Leads

For brokers who built their pipelines around trigger leads, the adjustment will be challenging. But McKay believes most are already better off. “No one really wants to be doing trigger lead business,” he said. “You didn’t grow up saying, ‘I’m going to be a firefighter or I’m going to do trigger lead solicitations.’”

McKay acknowledged that some brokers had confessed to him, quietly, that they used the practice. But new technology is filling the gap. 

“There’s awesome tech that makes it almost the same process for loan officers, just a lot less invasive,” he said. For example, he referenced one brokerage that embraced data-driven alternatives is now doing “a lot more business than they were strictly off trigger leads.”

Jonathan Haddad, Chairman / CEO of AIME and President of Next Door Lending, knows that reality firsthand. “My company comes from consumer direct. We actually did work credit triggers ourselves, and I took a lot of heat for it,” Haddad admitted. “For those that worked triggers with integrity, it wasn’t illegal at the time. But now you need to ask, ‘What’s next for me?’”

Haddad’s advice: diversify. “Spread yourself out. Don’t just go all in on one lead source,” he said. His own firm buys from four or five providers, supplements with NerdWallet leads after his company’s acquisition, and mines its past client database daily using geofencing technology. “Stop being concerned with the data and how it works. Just know the big players are using it — and you have a chance to as well.”

And for those worried about skill transfer, McKay was quick to remind them that converting cold leads is one of the hardest jobs in sales. “A trigger lead is almost as cold as it gets,” he said. “If you can close business that way, you can close business [in] a lot of other ways.”

The Next Fight: Loan Originator Compensation

Even as BAC helped shepherd the trigger leads ban across the finish line, another issue is looming in Washington: reform of LO compensation (comp) rules.

In June, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sent LO comp regulations to the White House for review. In the same month, the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) released a white paper urging Congress to scale back restrictions that prevent LOs from adjusting compensation — even when it might benefit borrowers.

According to McKay, the danger isn’t reform itself, but reform done recklessly. “If you just rescind LO comp, that would cause a massive disaster,” he said. “There are a lot of problems with it. But it’s this clunky system we’re all working within right now. If you rip it out, it could be a really bad thing.”

BAC is already building a coalition to make sure broker voices are included. The group plans to push for targeted fixes, such as eliminating the 3% cap on broker comp — a barrier that makes small-balance loans in rural markets nearly impossible. “Don’t tell us how much money we should be able to make,” McKay said. “It’s an open market. And in certain markets, 3% is not enough.”

Haddad connected LO comp reform back to survival for smaller firms and loan officers. “The average loan officer closes less than two loans a month,” he said. “It’s hard to put food on the table. If we don’t fix these structural problems, we’re going to see even more LOs leave the industry.”

Furthermore, Clark pointed out that the CFPB’s uncertain role, coupled with state-level enforcement, is creating new compliance risks. “Not everybody loved the CFPB, but at least they were one spot for an answer,” she said. “Now if you’re licensed in 30 states, you might get 30 different interpretations.”

For both McKay and Clark, the lesson of the past year is clear: the wholesale channel survives only if it has a seat at the table.

“The wholesale channel almost died coming out of 2008,” McKay said. “If we don’t have a voice in D.C., we are at risk of going extinct the next time the sh** hits the fan. And I’ve poured my life into making sure that never happens again.”

Brokers vs. Servicers: The Competitive Frontline

While McKay and Clark keep their eyes on Capitol Hill, Haddad is warning brokers not to overlook the competitive battlefield right in front of them.

“The average loan officer closes less than two loans a month,” he said. “If you’re not using data, if you’re not adopting tech, you’re going to get left behind. Companies with billion-dollar budgets already are.”

Haddad pointed to mortgage servicers like Rocket, which now touches one in six U.S. mortgages, as the model brokers are up against. “Whether you like it or not, this data is legal. It’s being bought and sold every day,” he explained. “Servicers use tools like geofencing to know when your past client walks into an open house. If you’re not leveraging the same technology, you’re losing them.”

For less than $200 a month, Haddad said that brokers can access tools that alert them when past clients are shopping for homes. “Every client that you close can go into this list and every day I go through it with my team,” he said. The script to win them back doesn’t require revealing data collection — just a simple check-in call that reopens the relationship.

 “So stop being concerned with how the data works,” Haddad said. “Know that the big players are using it, and you have a chance to as well.”

His point: even as advocacy wins in Washington reshape the rules, brokers must invest in their own defenses. “Competition is a beautiful thing,” he said. “But don’t be the one left behind because you refused to innovate.”

On the Ground: Brokers Adapt In Real Time

Marc Halpern, CEO of Foundation Mortgage Corporation, has lived that adaptation firsthand. A top non-QM originator for decades, Halpern bought Foundation in 2022 and flipped it from retail to wholesale — specializing exclusively in non-QM lending.

“There’s always going to be a space for a broker,” Halpern said. “Big servicers can hold onto borrower data and chase the easy refinances. But when it comes to non-QM — gig workers, influencers, self-employed borrowers — you need a broker who can tell the story and fight through exceptions. That’s not something an algorithm can mass-produce.”

Halpern sees relationships as brokers’ ace card: the ability to pick up the phone, escalate an appraisal, and close a complex loan where a servicer or big-box lender would stall.

“I built my career on relationships,” he said. “If you can offer best-in-class service and product knowledge, there will always be business for you — no matter what the servicers do.”

His pivot to non-QM underscores the broader point BAC leaders make: advocacy keeps brokers at the table, but execution, through specialization and service, keeps them in the game.

A New Era For Brokers

From the main stage to private sit-downs, the conversations at Originator Connect made one thing clear: the trigger lead restrictions are not the end of the fight, but the beginning of a new era.

Clark pressed for coalition funding to keep brokers represented in Washington. McKay warned against complacency as LO comp debates heat up. Haddad pushed brokers to adopt technology before servicers eat their lunch. Meanwhile, Halpern offered the operator’s reality check: there’s still space for brokers who bring service, specialization, and relationships to the table.