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A Better Way’s new president Kevin Mercier on how maximum choice and autonomy for agents will spur the company’s growth

AFTER NEARLY a decade of growth that’s seen the company expand its team across two brands and 185 agents, mortgage brokerage A Better Way is taking the next steps in its evolution with the appointment of renowned executive Kevin Mercier as president. The company, founded by partners Lekie Chand and Mark Smith in December 2012 and licensed in British Columbia and Alberta, has witnessed significant progress over its 10 years, starting out with a Dominion Lending Centres brokerage and inaugurating a separate Mortgage Architects brokerage five and a half years later. It hit a new milestone of $3.2 billion in mortgages funded last year, split equally across those two brands, with Mercier’s appointment described by Smith as a move that will spur the company’s next phase of growth and allow him and Chand to better support its agent and internal partners.

A Better Way is a mortgage brokerage founded in 2012 by Mark Smith and Lekie Chand, licensed in British Columbia and Alberta. The company currently has about 185 agents and offers the choice of two brands. It funded $3.2 billion in mortgages in 2021.

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“Our model is definitely about choice, and about how to build your mortgage business and your unique brand. We’re about building our brokers’ brands to the consumer and supporting them through that process”

Kevin Mercier, A Better Way

Mercier’s arrival provides the brokerage with a seasoned mortgage executive who offers industry expertise, leadership, vision, and a relationship-building approach – not to mention a demonstrated credibility among lenders, regulators, networks, and agents, according to Smith. “He brings tangible experience from every angle in the industry,” Smith told CMP. “As we grow, my partner and I want to spend more of our time on supporting our agent partners. We needed somebody who brought all those skills to the table to focus on growing and leading the organization.” Mercier arrives in the new role with a sizeable record of achievement, having represented Mortgage Alliance as vice president of sales during a 12-year stint and spending two years in the role of vice president for western Canada at The Mortgage Centre. Those positions saw the executive gain extensive experience supporting agents and brokerages, first in executing network business objectives for Mortgage Alliance and then working with franchise owners to grow the Mortgage Centre network.

The power of choice The new president described his new role as a natural fit, telling CMP that A Better Way’s strong value proposition spoke for itself – and stood out as unique in the country. There are two key words that immediately come to mind for Mercier when explaining the company’s ethos: freedom and choice. That’s about giving agents the ability to develop their own business as they best see fit, he said, without facing excessive restrictions and other requirements from above. “Our model is definitely about choice, and about how to build your mortgage business and your unique brand,” he said. “We’re not really about promoting our own brand to the consumer; we’re about building [up] our brokers’ brands to the consumer and supporting them through that process.”

Agents having options in every aspect of their role is integral to A Better Way’s model, as a brokerage – perhaps the only one in the country – that offers a choice of different brands as well as freedom to choose technology and lenders, open contracts, top compensation, data ownership and renewal, and trailer commissions in perpetuity upon departure. That’s been a founding principle of the company that hasn’t changed in its decade in operation, according to Chand. He told CMP that A Better Way had always been committed to offering agents maximum freedom in how they operate their business, a philosophy that’s here to stay. “We have regulatory requirements, but our focus is to provide agents as many options as possible,” he said. “One of the things that makes us unique is that we do have that choice of brand – either Dominion Lending Centres or Mortgage Architects.

“Everyone who joins us, every one of our agent partners, has the latitude, freedom, and choice to use technology, pick lenders, choose branding, and structure their business their way – whether they want to run a team, incorporate, use third-party systems, outsource, hire direct, or build their own version of the best one-person team.” What’s more, it’s been a central factor behind the success of A Better Way over the years, he added. “Trusting our team [members] to run their own business has been the key to our growth over the years. Our foundation has been built solely by them with their professionalism and caring manner toward clients and industry stakeholders,” he explained. “We consider ourselves very lucky.” That freedom and choice message of allowing agents to choose how best to run their business was one that resonated with Mercier, who said that throughout his 14 years of executive experience in the mortgage space, it had been clear that brokers thrive when they aren’t simply told what to do. He described Chand and Smith as “focused operators” – owners who do not broker, whose values of ethics, honesty, and transparency mirrored his own. “It just aligns with my vision and goals of running the company in the future, which is definitely going to follow what Mark and Lekie – and their team – have built already,” he said. “We’re going to stick to our DNA and who we are.

“Our focus is to provide agents as many options as possible. One of the things that makes us unique is that we do have that choice of brand – either DLC or Mortgage Architects”

Lekie Chand, A Better Way

“We might add some value pieces coming into it, but the vision is the same. If we do build a value piece, it’s hopefully going to bring agents to it so they use it organically. We’re still giving them that choice.” Meanwhile, the company’s lender access also proved a factor that impressed Mercier. “What I found to be unique about A Better Way, above and beyond having the option for brokers to align with DLC or Mortgage Architects, was the ‘direct’ lender access available to all of our brokers at top-tier status, and the availability of credit unions that many brokerages do not have access to,” he said.

People who care Another factor that’s remained unchanged since the company’s inception – and that will continue under Mercier’s presidency – is its focus on attracting what its executives describe as “people who care”: agents whose professional DNA is a good fit for A Better Way’s ethos and commitment to Canadian borrowers. “It really is about people who care not just about each other or their clients, but our lender and industry partners, too,” said Chand. “We want to attract people up-front who align with our approach to how we’ve always moved forward and intend to continue to do so.”

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“As we grow, my partner and I want to spend more of our time on supporting our agent partners. We needed somebody who brought all those skills to the table to focus on growing and leading the organization”

Mark Smith, A Better Way

For those agents who join, the company provides a smooth onboarding transition and offers rapid in-house support for questions, deal escalations, regulatory matters, business coaching, and client concerns, as well as weekly lender training, ad hoc training, and social events. The three executives are set to dovetail neatly under the new arrangement, with Mercier focusing on what he described as his key strengths: creating relationships with other brokers in the community and trying to build value for them. That complements the partnership that’s proven a winning one over the past 10 years, with Smith and Chand's preferred focus on strategy and operational and logistical skills.

“I’m always such a believer in doing what your best use of time is,” Mercier said. “This is my perfect world where I can focus on what I’m best at doing, which is creating relationships with other brokers in the community and trying to build value for them. “It’s nice to take a sliver of that responsibility away from Mark and Lekie after they’ve done such a great job as partners over the years. I just have very ambitious goals for what we can do moving forward, and I see this company growing immensely in the next couple of years and beyond.”

Mark Smith, A Better Way

Founded in December 2012

One team, two brands: Dominion Lending Centres, Mortgage Architects

185 agents

Licensed in BC, Alberta

$3.2 billion funded in 2021 (split equally by brands)

A Better Way profile

Kevin Mercier

PROFILE

2022 became president of A Better Way

12 years spent as vice president of sales, Mortgage Alliance

2 years spent as VP, western Canada for The Mortgage Centre

Current role at A Better Way is overseeing next phase of growth while ensuring current agent partner support remains core focus

Contact details: kevin@abwm.ca 778-846-5346 joinabw.com