The week that was 31st May

Hi Folks,

As the summer season is now upon us and the world of footy is taking its annual break, stadiums the length and breadth of the UK have instead this week been playing host to performances from all plethora of music legends from the sixties onwards (The Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys, Ed Sheeran et al) who are all finally back on the road with a vengeance after so many covid cancellations over the last two years. Great to see you all back! And of course UKRAINE AID is now only 16 days away …. 😊

The London Stadium (no stranger to a mixed standard of entertainment!!) did however keep a footy slot free for this weekend’s Soccer Aid where Lee Mack scored the winning penalty amidst various Line of Duty Stars and support from the legend that is Idris Elba.

Back to the world of music and nineties superstar Britney Spears got married again this weekend although she wasn’t too “Lucky” as true to form, one of her rather “Toxic” exes gate-crashed the wedding turning the event into a bit of a “Circus”! Talk about “Oooops”!

And finally we know that the summer, “silly” season is well and truly kicking in when the usual parade of vacuous wannabee reality stars all head into that villa in Majorca and the purgatory that is “Love Island” starts dominating the headlines for the weeks to come!!!! Hit that snooze button now!!!!!!

…. But do please stay awake long enough to hear that on the mortgage side of the business in spite of it being the half team holidays you still managed to eclipse the Love Island headlines by completing £16,815,424 of lending across 56 cases in Week 22.

MORTGAGEFORCE HEADLINES

On top of the charts this week and keeping it real as always was Will Avrili with £2,714,661 of lending across 3 cases, followed by Ajay Sharma with £2,475,673 of lending across 8 cases and then Phil Lyle with £1,313,409 of lending across 2 cases, his £1,001,662 deal with Barclays/Woolwich also earning him this week’s “Big Time Barry / Britney Fan” Award!

Then making enough noise to rival those stadiums in terms of loan values and volumes this week were Paul Varney, James Crocker (a VERY IMPRESSIVE NEWCOMER UP HERE IN THE MIDLANDS) , Michelle Barraclough and Adriana Rocha.

On the lender side you completed the greatest number of deals this week with NatWest totalling 10 for £4,409,042 of lending.

Protection – Week 22

Things took a real dip this week over on the Protection side of the business with just 8 cases completed of which Nick Price completed 5 deals and Tom Sibley secured the highest policy amount of £455,0000 with Zurich.

On the provider side you completed the greatest number of deals jointly this week with AIG Life and L&G totalling 3 each.

Birthday’s and other Parish Notices

We are kicking off the section this week with these super cute photo’s of “Baby Sawyer” and his siblings, which Leighann very kindly sent across. Leighann’s daughters are besotted with their new brother and Mum is now looking forward to getting back to normal whatever that is!

It’s fair to say that this baby is now OUT OUT!!! 😊

Onto this week’s Birthday’s and Many Happy Returns go to Heather Wall who is celebrating today, Phil Lyle for the 17th and John Yates for the 20th.

Also many Belated Happy Returns go to Lorraine Standring for last week and Lorraine was also celebrating 3 sign ups totalling just under £1m!

Club Notices For Members

With June now fully upon us the calendar for summer events is filling up.

First out of the gate this week were the good folks at OSB who hosted an afternoon's strategising at the Queens' tennis jamboree.

Madame’s Evans & Machin kept it flowery whilst Messrs Moloney & Duffy re-played the iconic ITV show "On The Buses".

The Gaffer has vehemently denied that there was any likeness (in either looks or behaviour) to the fun loving character that was Reg Varney!

So please feel free to send in your own summer sizzler piccies between now and September.

Moving on to a more serious matter please see below:

Selecting the path of least resistance

This is something which is pretty critical right now given how tough it is proving for all of us to:

1. Select the right lender in the first instance and

2. Firefight the countless bonfires that are emerging as any given case eeks its ways towards a hopeful but all too often fragmented completion.

Suffice to say you have the management team’s full support to be referring to lenders who can perform on speed and service as opposed to just selecting those at the top of Best Buys tables.

I have done this to my own cost recently so have started to use the likes of Kent Reliance (not always the best service but at least they can do stuff other lenders won’t!) And at the moment, Halifax. Even where the seemingly “Best” product is 30 or 40 basis points cheaper.

Just ensure that your suitability letter fully justifies your advice accordingly..

Lastly, a fullsome note on Ukraine Aid will follow from Michelle tomorrow.

Have a good week all.