“Offering the biggest promotion is just one more reason why Mortgage Alliance brokers are unique,” said Michael Beckette. We want Canadians to do business with us because our brokers provide superior Choice, Counsel, and Convenience and as a bonus, they get rewarded with a chance to win $100,000.”

Patricia’s reward couldn’t have come at a better time. The family had been recently challenged after Jason was laid-off from his construction company earlier this year. “I couldn’t believe it!” Patricia said. “I kept asking the man (Louie Bettio, Mortgage Alliance Brand Champion) on the other end of the phone, “is this really happening?” “We’re still in shock but we’re so grateful to Mortgage Alliance for helping us with our first home and now with our new winnings!”

There was a very poignant moment when Mrs. Lopes learned about Mortgage Alliance’s 2012 fund raising effort, supporting the Weekend To End All Women’s Cancers.

Her Mother, Emilia (seen left) was just declared cancer-free after battling Breast Cancer.

When Michael asked what the young couple planned on doing with their winnings, Patricia said that they were going straight to the bank, paying off their car loans, applying some money toward their mortgage and have already booked a trip to Negril Jamaica, their first trip since being married four years ago.

It was Patricia’s best friend who referred her to Mortgage Alliance.

For more information, contact Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com Or by phone at 416-727-0790

When you meet Michael Beckette for the first time, you can’t help but instantly like him. It’s a Monday afternoon, and at the Mortgage Alliance head office in a bustling suburb of Toronto, Beckette is sporting a baseball cap and casual wear rather than the typical business suit you’d expect from a mortgage broker, let alone the president of one of Canada’s largest brokerages. His presence is warm and congenial and, at the same time, he possesses authority and confidence. You are eager to please and he is eager to encourage. “You want me to tell you the thing that I like most?” he asks, as we settle around the coffee table in his office, and he talks to me about creating and building the Mortgage Alliance business for over 10 years. “The thing I like the most is seeing someone who has never been a mortgage broker before come into this industry, learn how to be a broker, become one of our franchise owners and build their company into hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The gratification I get now is the success of other people.”

Beckette began his own success in the real estate industry. Prior to starting Mortgage Alliance in September 1998, he was the vice president of operations at Coldwell Banker Canada for seven years. “I started as a young man in the real estate business,” says Beckette, who earned his bachelor of business at the University of Michigan and returned to Toronto shortly after completing his degree. “I had a real job for four months and ever since then, I was an entrepreneur.” This intrinsic entrepreneurial spirit and keen business acumen is what led Beckette to enter the mortgage business, which he saw was underserviced at the time.

At that time, a large brokerage was made up of 100 or 200 people, says Melissa Rizzi, vice- president of operations at Mortgage Alliance, who has known Beckette for 12 years and worked with him for 10. “So back then Mike was talking to various lenders about having 1,000 brokers and they laughed at him,” she says, “but he is a brave, innovative thinker.” Mortgage Alliance now has approximately 1,900 brokers within its multiple networks across the country, and was the first super brokerage to be licensed in every province. The company’s mission has always been to provide the best environment for mortgage professionals, whether it’s someone completely new who requires daily hands-on training and support, or an experienced professional who wants to plug into resources that would otherwise be too expensive to recreate on one’s own. Beckette believes this is the greatest service he can offer to help grow others into success. “It’s very important brokers recognize they’re not in the mortgage industry,” says Beckette. “Mortgages is what you do but you’re in the industry of helping people achieve what they want. Nobody wants a mortgage. What they want is the lifestyle, the home ownership, the opportunities a mortgage creates for them.”

Beckette excels at creating opportunities for Mortgage Alliance brokers and his senior team to help them achieve their goals and live their dreams. One of the team members is Joe Pinheiro, vice-president of sales. “I am the luckiest person in the world because I get to talk to Mike every day,” says Pinheiro. “He brings the best out of everybody. He’s the kind of person you really want to work hard for and he inspires you to think in new ways.” The Mortgage Alliance senior management team, which includes Pinheiro, Rizzi and Laura MacLennan, vice-president of business development, have all been working with Beckette at the company for 10 years-a testament to Beckette who says what he loves about his job is the people he works with. ”When I first met Mike, what struck me about him was his passion, his vision, his willingness to take risks,” says MacLennan, who’s personally known Beckette for more than 25 years. “He’s very focused and results-oriented and knows how to execute.”

One of Beckette’s long-standing focuses since entering the business is to establish mortgage brokers, and particularly Mortgage Alliance, as a recognizable consumer brand. When he started, mortgage brokers had an eight per cent share in Canada’s market of financing mortgages. It has grown to nearly 30 per cent but has been stalled there for a few years now. “In Quebec, Multi-Prets has 45 per cent market share. It’s a recognized brand,” says Beckette, referring to Mortgage Alliance’s sister company based in the francophone province. People in Quebec, they say if you want a mortgage, you have to go to a bank or you have to go to Multi-Prets. It’s that level of trust we need to build in the rest of Canada. It requires a lot of money to build that level of trust, and brokerages don’t have nearly as many advertising dollars as the big banks do.” Currently, Mortgage Alliance spends $2.5 to $3 million each year across Canada, but Beckette says it needs to double that spending.

In the meantime, as Beckette and the Mortgage Alliance team work toward brand trust, they’re also planning a motorcycle ride across Canada, called the Mac Rally of Hope, to raise money for breast cancer research. In 2008, Beckette, a motorcycle rider himself, and three others from Mortgage Alliance travelled from Vancouver to Halifax on their bikes over 10 days and raised more than $77,000. This year (they couldn’t attempt it again in 2009 because they were too sore, laughs Beckette), they are riding from Vancouver to St. John’s, Nfld. In segments over 16 days and anyone can participate, as long as they raise some money. ”My favourite experience had nothing to do with riding a motorcycle,” says Beckette, echoing his sentiments about what it means to be a mortgage broker. It was the people we met across the country. Everybody we ran into had an inspirational story about breast cancer or breast cancer survivors in their family. The reason Mortgage Alliance chose to support this particular cause is because the mother of one of the senior management team was inflicted with breast cancer.”

In a rush to get to downtown Toronto, Beckette interrupts me but not without first attributing Mortgage Alliance’s success to his senior team. “It’s not about me,” he says, as I notice his baseball cap reads the Mac Rally of Hope, “it’s about them.” Even as he’s out the door in an obvious hurry, he introduces me to his management team in a flourish and offers up his office for me to talk to them. I watch him give one last hug and smile to another employee, and understand quite thoroughly what Michael Beckette enjoys most about working in mortgages is helping people achieve their dreams. CMP

The event held at Toronto Pearson Centre with over 500 members in attendance was streamed live to the company’s Calgary & Vancouver locations simultaneously, with the balance of MAC members watching the event remotely on-line.

The event also featured a sold-out trade show exhibit in 3 locations featuring MAC’s lenders and ancillary strategic partners.

The theme of this year’s show was “Scope, Innovation, Focus & Philanthropy.”

The event included several memorable highlights and exciting new announcements made by President & CEO (and recent Canadian Mortgage Hall Of Fame Inductee) Michael Beckette.

Among all the new initiatives Michael shared, it was announced that the company is launching a NEW mortgage product. One that it spent two years developing based on market research and broker involvement. It offers real “Home Virgins” an attractive product that’s been bundled with the essential service and insurance products in an all-in-one mortgage.

The new product offered exclusively through Mortgage Alliance Brokers will be immediately available to all Ontario residents with plans to roll out the brand nationally over the next few months.

When asked about the product’s potential appeal Michael replied “we wanted to focus a product that will help grow our broker’s business amongst our most important consumer group AND that will appeal to our broker’s realtor partners.”

Based on Mortgage Alliance’s track record including the highly successful RightMortgageÒ (more than $4Billion in sales to date) and it’s SmartMortgageÔ Solution, “My First Mortgage “should do quite well among what has become the “bread & butter” consumer group for the mortgage broker industry.

Another major announcement made at the show was the unveiling of Mortgage Alliance’s new Web Video Ad. The company produced a television broadcast quality execution that will be exclusively shown on the company’s web site, which receives well over 1,000,000, hits a month.

The ad features a fictional “Director of Apology” spokesperson that apologizes to the viewer for the injuries that keep happening to customers celebrating after they’ve received the good news from their Mortgage Alliance Professional. The spot titled “AcciDances” displays hysterical scenarios whereby customers break into dance after being approved for their financing requests. Louie Bettio, Brand Champion of Mortgage Alliance told CMP that the on-line commercial was created for two reasons; recent research conducted by Microsoft and Neilson’s media measurement demonstrated that consumer’s “likeability” towards a company (especially in the financial services industry) is significantly increased when they see an original on-line video ad versus a “repurposed” TV commercial. His second point was “we wanted to take an otherwise stressful situation for a consumer and add some levity into the process, affecting favorability towards the brand and moving the consumer from consideration to conquest- in order to further grow our broker’s business. “Creating for the visitor a unique web experience and winning more “share of heart” in the process for all Mortgage Alliance Professionals” he went on to say.

Based on the reaction from the over 500-person audience, the on-line ad will definitely strike the funny-bone of MAC’s web visitors and could go viral given the creative and “unusual” message of the ad. The spot will be launched on the company’s NEW website in late February to coincide with MAC’s new National Radio Campaign launch.  The 7-year successful campaign with its iconic jingle, will once again feature MAC’s President as spokesperson and consumer mentor.

Part of the new radio campaign will include the company’s $100,000 Minimize Your Mortgage Sweepstakes Promotion, now in it’s 5^th year. Michael announced that on February 29^th they would be drawing the potential 2011 Grand Prize Winners – which marks over $500,000 that the company has awarded to clients during the promotion’s life-time. The highest sum awarded in the mortgage broker industry to-date.

Still focused on the “consumer” and building its agents business, MAC announced the launch of a new Integrated and automated consumer correspondence program. The system called “IMPACT” has been a strategic advantage for MAC Broker’s to stay in-touch and top-of-mind with consumers for both retention and referral building opportunities. The system has been integrated into MAC’s own MortgageBOSS software system which now “automatically will send out the elements of the IMPACT program on behalf of its brokers over a 60 month period.

Michael also announced the automated direct mail program (which also available in an e-mail form) will be automatically integrated for MAC Brokers with every RightMortgage & My First Mortgage transaction.

Underscoring the investment and value toward customer management he stated, “As we’ve learned and seen through the Maritz broker research, 67% of brokers don’t contact their client post-deal” said Michael Beckette. “Over the past 7 years we have aggressively focused on helping our Brokers build stronger Broker-Client relationships. Systems like MortgageBOSS help our Brokers generate better “prospect-to-customer and customer-to-repeat customer conversion” he went on to say.

In-fact, to emphasize the important of customer contact and relationship mining, Mortgage Alliance hired Rob Daniel, Managing Director, Loyalty and Research, Maritz Research Canada as the event’s feature guest speaker.

When closing his presentation, Michael Beckette announced that Mortgage Alliance has pledged to raise more than $200,000 towards The Weekend To End All Woman’s Cancer Charity in 2012.

The company who’s had a long history of philanthropic fund-raising will be using it’s MAC Rally of Hope cross-Canada motorcycle event in concert with it’s Golf, Boat Cruise, Gala and other 2012 events as additional fund raising occasions that lead up to the 60 kilometer walk in September.

Michael was recently appointed an Honorary Chair on The Weekend to End All Women’s Cancer Board of Directors.

As part of the event’s focus towards reaching it’s charitable goal, every audience member in each of the three locations received a complimentary DVD Movie called “Hope, Fate & Thunder” that documents Mortgage Alliance’s inaugural cross-country trek the company conducted to raise funds for Breast Cancer research. The film was recently submitted into the New York Museum of Modern Arts – New Canadian Film Festival at the request of the Festival’s Senior Curator, Laurence Kardish and by Tele-film Canada.

The company’s passion towards fighting the disease was brought home (in a manner of speaking) when Michael called onto the stage some of MAC’s own Cancer Survivors. A poignant moment of the event and somber reminder of how many people have been touched and affected by Cancer.

Finally, the event culminated with Mortgage Alliance recognizing and rewarding its Brokers with a series of 2011 awards handed out throughout the show. These incorporated $100 Million Plus Top-performance agents and a variety of others including; MAC University Graduates, Masters Club, Elite Club, President’s Club, 5 & 10 Year Service, 5 Diamond Customer Service Award, Franchise awards and several Specialty awards.

With the highlight of the awards ceremony announcing the winner’s of MAC’s coveted Rewards & Recognition trip happening in April at the 5 Star Resort, Palace Playacar.

The Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame was created to recognize and honour mortgage industry leaders whose achievements and service have contributed to the success of the Canadian mortgage industry. Inductees to the Mortgage Hall of Fame have provided leadership, vision and inspiration in their profession and strive to make a difference to enhance industry standards. The 2011 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place on Sunday, November 20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Mortgage Alliance first opened its doors in 1998, which included Michael and his partners and Quebec broker firm, Multi-Pret Hypotheques. The company became the fastest growing mortgage broker in Canadian history garnering many awards and industry accolades over the past thirteen years.

The company prides itself on offering the mortgage consumer a unique set of experiences including; Choice, Counsel and Convenience. Mortgage Alliance or “MAC” as it is often referred to has also created the industry’s most successful mortgage professionals by adhering to its original corporate mission statement. It emphasizes “creating an independent team of mortgage professionals through the recruitment and development of entrepreneurial people”. It goes on to say, that the company “strives to provide the optimum environment and resources to deliver its customer with these exclusive set of experiences.

Since founding The Mortgage Alliance in 1998, Michael and his partners have seen the organization grow to more than 2,000 mortgage professionals and over eight billion dollars in mortgage volume annually.

Today the company, which works with over 40 lender partners helps thousands of Canadians achieve their dreams of home ownership and financial security.

See Michael’s induction speech – click here.

For more information about Michael Beckette or Mortgage Alliance, please contact Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com or by phone at 1886-705-4447

Since it began, the VIP Hub has provided the Mortgage Alliance Network with access to top-tier service and incentives from over 12 major lenders. And the strategy seems to be working well.

During the month of April alone, the National VIP Lender Hub reviewed 398 files, submitted 329 of those files totaling over $75,000,000.00 in mortgage volume. This is an astounding amount of mortgage origination through one source.

“We started the VIP Lender HUB to provide access to many lenders for mortgage agents who may otherwise not have enjoyed that benefit.” “However, we’ve witnessed a much larger mass-appeal than we originally anticipated” said Michael Beckette, President & C.E.O. of Mortgage Alliance.

He went on to say “It’s very difficult for the average mortgage agent to get top level service and benefits from several different lenders.” He further stated,“ The VIP HUB provides this for them and it benefits the lenders we work with as well by delivering quality business efficiently. We’ve been able to do well not just because of our overall network size but because we work together to achieve a specific goal that benefits us all. Most brokers work with a just few lenders but there’s great value in having easy access to more.”

“We just knew that whatever we did had to work for our Agents, the Network and our Lender Partners” he reiterated.

If you would like to learn more or have any questions regarding the Mortgage Alliance VIP Lender Hub, please contact Jennifer Joynt, VIP HUB Manager at jjoynt@mortgagealliance.com

From its inception, the MortgageBOSS offline application was designed to do one thing better than any one else, -allow the Mortgage Alliance network of mortgage professionals the freedom and access to create client applications regardless of network connections and add value to the client relationship.

In less than one year, the software has become the highest used offline application in the mortgage brokerage industry.

New design augmentations include the abilities to:

• Fill mortgage applications and send anytime
• A Real Time – Rate Grid Systems that shows BEST Rates available
• A Rate Matrix – A comprehensive screen showing rates offered by Lenders
• The Mortgage Professor – a unique software wizard with Lender Logic that includes current products offered by the lenders, their guidelines and policies that guide the mortgage professional, in real time, as they complete the application.
• Faster and smarter calculators for MAC’s hugely successful RightMortgage & SmartMortgage products.

As Michael Beckette, C.E.O. of Mortgage Alliance stated, “this new technology will continue to change the way we do business. It will improve efficiencies and empower our network of mortgage professionals with resources and lender relationships they need to grow their business and add value to the client relationship.”

For more information regarding this revolutionary Technology, please contact:

Michael Beckette at mbeckette@mortgagealliance.com or 416-499-5454 – extension 235

or Karl Sutton ksutton@mortgagealliance.com or 416-499-5454, extension 233

Long known as the industry leader, Mortgage Alliance has redesigned its MAC University for all new and articling mortgage professionals -as well as providing continuing education for experienced MAC professionals. MAC U now includes Management and Leadership Training for Franchisees and Team Leaders.

As a result, there are now SIX levels for mortgage professionals during this exclusive educational program.

The 6 Mac-U levels are:

i)     Provincial Licensing Course (where applicable)

ii)    Orientation

iii)   Career Development Program “CDP”

iv)   Success Series

v)    MAC Academy

vi)   Special Sessions & Subjects

vii)  Management & Leadership

Mac-U training sessions is offered to the Mortgage Alliance network via in-Class sessions and Live Online sessions. There are over 150 MAC U sessions each year with more than 50 CE Credits that can be obtained by attending MAC U.

MAC U is the only training & education program that is co-partnered with

CMHC (Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corporation).

For more information about the new MAC University, please contact John Gabriel –(Head of Education & Compliance) at jgabriel@mortgagealliance.com

or

Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com

The awarding ceremony of Rajith Mathai, a welder who works in Fort McMurray that occurred on Tuesday March 21^st, will be a day that he and his wife Anna Belle will never forget.

On that day, the couple received two blessings;

1-     Mr. Rajith Mathai was presented his cheque for $100,000 by Michael Beckette, President of Mortgage Alliance and

2-     Mr. Mathai’s wife, Anna Belle delivered their first child later that same day. A healthy and very “lucky” Baby Boy!

As Anna Belle said, “this baby has brought me and my husband great fortune. He is a lucky baby.” “This windfall from Mortgage Alliance couldn’t have come at a better time.

Mukesh Kakkar, a 10-year broker with Mortgage Alliance was the lucky couple’s mortgage professional that managed their mortgage transaction in 2010.

Below are pictures of the proud new parents and Mr. Rajith Mathai accepting his cheque from Michael Beckette and Mukesh Kakkar.

For further information on this story, please contact Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com

Supported with over 50 radio stations across the country in key markets, the campaign will reach the all-important target groups comprised of first time home buyers, mortgage renewers, home renovators and debt consolidators.

The campaign is using multiple radio executions to deliver a variety of key consumer-driven messages (to showcase the company’s depth of products and services) ranging from “One-Stop Shopping”, to “Pre-empting Interest Rate Forecasts” , “Reducing Household debt” to “the Right & Smart Mortgage Solutions.”

“Our media strategy allows us to deliver multiple ‘consumer relevant’ messages throughout the media flight,” said Louie Bettio, MAC’s Brand Champion. He went on to say, “We’ve used radio over the 8 years because it can quickly generate the “reach” and the all-important “frequency” of our messages that drive consumer traffic to the Mortgage Alliance web site.  That’s where consumers can learn more about the company and most importantly, locate their local Top-Producing Mortgage Alliance Professional.”

Building brand recall and subsequent consumer interaction has been paramount to the company’s success. The MAC radio jingle (heard twice during each 30 second ad) is paying significant dividends  – winning both share of mind and share of heart with consumers.  Bettio also stated, “we’ve been very strategic that each spot features MAC’s President and C.E.O, Michael Beckette as the spokes person. Michael’s appeal comes in form by way of his sincerity and humility – delivering solutions with  a calming simplicity to the listening audience.” He also noted, consumers respond very well to the credibility and accountability that Michael projects for the brand.

Phase 1 of the new campaign started on February 21^st and launches in 20 additional markets on Monday March 7^th

For more information regarding the new MAC Radio Campaign, please contact Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com or at 416-727-0790.

The new app system provides Mortgage Alliance Professionals the ability to multi‐task and to get up‐to‐the minute real time information regarding rate updates, breaking news and much more!

In addition, the Mobile MAC App includes easy access to calculators for the company’s popular Right and Smart Mortgage Products.

Michael Beckette, President & CEO stated, that the new MAC‐App is all part of MAC’s technology strategy to arm its network with the resources and advantages to help grow their business and add value to the customer transaction process.

Proof of MAC’s commitment can be seen over the past 6 months via the company’s launch of its new BOSSV2 software platform, Off‐Line Application and now the MAC App.

For more information, please contact Karl Sutton at ksuttn@mortgagealliance.com or Louie Bettio at lbettio@mortgagealliance.com.