Choice Aggregation Services (Choice) today revealed that its members have written over $2 billion in mortgage protection cover with Australian Life Insurance (ALI).

The cover written by Choice members consists of over 7,600 policies written since August 2006.

According to Choice’s chief executive officer Brendan O’Donnell the milestone reflects a growing acceptance from consumers to select products outside of residential mortgages from their broker.

“The broker market is maturing and clients now increasingly trust their broker to provide products above and beyond residential mortgages,” Mr O’Donnell said.

“While recent lender commission cuts have taken their toll on brokers’ revenue and are certainly unwelcome, the positive that’s come out of it is that the third-party industry as a whole has adapted and moved on.

“Products such as mortgage protection insurance are an obvious add-on for brokers; it’s easy to fit within a client presentation. With an offering such as ALI’s free three month trial period, there’s also no great difficulty in selling the product - it’s a natural value add for brokers and empowers their overall client proposition.”

Expanding the products available to Choice members has been a constant focus for O’Donnell and his management team.

As well as a comprehensive commercial offering, personal loans and other financial products, mortgage protection insurance has been a growing component of the aggregator’s business.

“We’ve noticed a marked pick up over the past six to twelve months in our members’ willingness to offer new products and this is now starting to pay dividends for them.”

O’Donnell believes that Choice’s $2 billion milestone with ALI is a very important benchmark for the industry.

“Such a substantial level of insurance clearly demonstrates that we now operating as a truly diversified industry, not just talking about it.”

ALI’s executive director and head of distribution Brian Pillemer agrees that the increased uptake of brokers writing mortgage protection cover is a result of market forces and a coming of age for the mortgage industry.

“Working with Choice over the past two years has given us the scope to really understand the broker proposition and how best we can package our product to best suit their needs and sales process.

“I’m confident that we’ve positioned our mortgage protection product to merge seamlessly with brokers’ processes, helping them ensure their clients are properly covered should the unforeseen occur and also generate significant additional revenue,” Mr Pillemer said.