The client questions mortgage brokers hear most — and where to send each one

The mortgage completes. Champagne, keys, done. Except it never is. Within weeks the same clients are back with the follow-ons: should we overpay or put the spare £300 a month into a pension? Do we need a will now there is a house and a baby? What happens to the mortgage if one of us dies? A mortgage is most households' largest financial commitment — the average UK first-time buyer now borrows well over £200,000 — so it drags every other financial question out into the light. Many brokers hold protection permissions and can advise on life cover and income protection directly. The rest of the list is different. Pensions, investments and wills sit outside a typical mortgage permission, and the FCA does not grade good intentions.

The overpayment question deserves respect, because it is genuinely close. You can lay out the mechanics without advising: most lenders allow penalty-free overpayments of 10% of the balance a year; overpaying is a guaranteed saving at the mortgage rate, while investing offers uncertain returns with risk attached; pension contributions carry tax relief at the saver's marginal rate, which changes the arithmetic considerably for higher-rate taxpayers. Then stop. Which is right for you depends on things a regulated financial adviser will look at properly is the correct final sentence, and it is also true. The client who hears a broker decline to freelance outside their permissions does not think less of them. They think: this one is careful with boundaries, and they were careful with my mortgage too.

Keep it short enough to memorise.

• Pensions, investing, the overpay-versus-invest decision — a regulated financial adviser on the FCA Register.
• Wills and powers of attorney — a will specialist or estate planner. A new mortgage plus no will is the most common gap you will see; joint ownership as tenants in common makes it urgent, not optional.
• Protection — you, if permissioned; a protection specialist if not.
• Debt worries — MoneyHelper, free and impartial, before anything else.

Warm referrals convert; lists of names do not. Brokers using SmartPeer can track each referral and generate the disclosure letter automatically, which keeps the compliance file tidy. The broker who routes the follow-on questions well is the broker the client calls at remortgage time. That is the whole business model, in one habit.