Profile
“Our mission is simple: we empower financial planners to spend more time building trust, deepening client relationships, and growing their business”
Chris Arthur, Bold Wealth
Stephen Michaels doesn’t talk like a person chasing numbers. Australia’s No. 1 mortgage broker for 2025 is more focused on:
training his team
building scalable systems and workflows
taking on the hard files others avoid
He says Catalyst Advisers simply does things its own way, not better or worse, just different from most.
When the managing director once again topped MPA’s Top 100 Brokers list, he credited the recognition to collective effort rather than personal performance.
“These awards, as much as it’s about my name, it’s absolutely about the business. If you have the right people on board and things start to click, it’s a very powerful combination,” he says.
That combination has carried Michaels to more than half a billion dollars in settlements between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025. He attributes that growth to timing, teamwork and the long view.
“It was actually the seeds that we planted two or three years ago that all started to bear fruit,” he explains. “It’s not as though we forced the floodgates open. You put your name out there, plant as many seeds as you can, make sure that you don’t cut any corners and give the right advice at the right time.”
He leads by embedding that philosophy across his expanding team. Catalyst has grown beyond the tight-knit start-up where everyone shared the same room and rhythm.
“We’re at a size now where as much as everyone’s listening, people receive communication in different ways,” he reflects.
With more brokers joining, the focus has turned to:
structured systems
consistent messaging
automation that supports rather than replaces the firm’s “white glove” client service
Michaels describes 2025 as the payoff for years of refining the model. Complex scenarios, such as multi-layered transactions, high-value loans or problem files that other brokers decline, are now Catalyst’s specialty.
“If someone can’t get it done, just call Stephen,” he laughs. “I’m sure he’ll forge a path through. We should embrace the really complex transactions because they’re the things that will set you apart.”
What underpins his consistency is discipline. Michaels begins every day with pen and paper, listing what matters most before the first call comes in.
“Win the morning,” he remarks. “I feel uneasy if I haven’t started the day by jotting down what emails are important, what meetings I have, what calls I need to make. It has served me very well over my career.”
The simplicity of that routine reflects the mindset that has defined his rise. His leadership style is equal parts humility and attention to detail, mentoring new brokers, strengthening systems and preserving a customer-first ethos even as volume grows.
Michaels often talks about Catalyst as a living network of trust that includes referral partners, accountants, solicitors and clients who come back because the team delivers exceptional outcomes. The volume, he insists, is just the scoreboard. The real work is keeping every process anchored to integrity and consistency.
That work ethic has once again put him at the top, but Michaels shrugs off the ranking.
“It’s the client first. You can’t ever lose sight of that, even though there might be another two or three hundred million in settlements in front of you each year.”
Level 4, 2 Bligh St., Sydney, NSW 2000
1300 411 455
stephen.michaels@catalyst.com.au
linkedin.com/in/stephen-michaels-catalyst
catalyst.com.au
Stephen Michaels
Managing Director
Catalyst Advisers
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“Whether I’m in a strategy session or a hiring meeting, I try to lead with understanding. Financial planners are under immense pressure, and so are our internal teams. The best way to earn trust is to truly listen”
Chris Arthur,
Bold Wealth
2012
2018
2020–2022
2023
2024–2025
Commenced as the first employee of Catalyst Advisers in a credit role
2012
Earned a placed on the Top Young Brokers Under 30 list
2018
First year of writing >$100 million in settlements
Earned a place on MPA’s Top 100 list
2020–2022: MPA Top 100 Broker
2020–2022
Ranked No. 3 in MPA Top 100 Brokers
Promoted to Managing Director
Finsure National Broker of the Year
2023
2024: Ranked No. 1 in MPA Top 100 Brokers
2024: Finsure Broker of the Year
2025: Ranked No. 1 in MPA Top 100 Brokers
2025: Finsure Broker of the Year
2024–2025
Assistant Vice President and Senior Broker at MJ Hall & Company since 2018
Present
Milestones
Aug 2022
Milestones
Sept 2021
Feb 2022
Apr 2022
Jul 2022
Aug
2022
Suncorp Bank introduces Solar Home Bonus offer for customers who are choosing renewable energy for their homes
Sept 2021
Month-on-month market share growth commences
Feb 2022
Suncorp Bank wins the Canstar award for most outstanding value in investment loans
Apr 2022
Suncorp Bank wins Money Magazine’s Bank of the Year and Business Bank of the Year awards for the fifth year in a row
Jul 2022
Suncorp Bank’s turnaround times are the lowest they have ever been. The lender becomes Australia’s first certified carbon neutral bank for both its operation and transaction services
Aug 2022
Milestones
