Thanking the judges from the 2024 NZ Mortgage Awards

The 2024 New Zealand Mortgage Awards (NZMAs) celebrated another year of excellence in the industry, drawing in a crowd of over 300 attendees. This impressive turnout solidifies the NZMAs as a premier event recognising top performers in the New Zealand mortgage landscape.

But with over 85 finalists from 15 awards across six diverse categories to choose from, deciding the winners required a dedicated team of judges working behind the scenes.

“It was such an honour to be part of it,” said Jeff Royle (pictured above left) mortgage adviser at iLender and one of the 24 judges who adjudicated the 2024 NZ Mortgage Awards.

With competition high among all categories with a record number of applicants, Royle said he found it difficult to decide who were the worthy winners.

“Honestly, it was like splitting hairs, but I think we landed at the right outcome,” Royle said. “Overall, we’ve had a pretty crap few years, so it was nice for the industry to band together and celebrate our success. We need events like this as an industry.”

What set finalists apart?

While all finalists were deserving of their place on the excellence awardee list, clearly certain attributes stood out to judges when selecting the winners.

Although many awards were weighted by quantitative metrics, Eugene Bartsaikin (pictured above right), director of Twine Advisers, said individuals and businesses that “prioritised connecting with clients and communities” stood out.

“We’re in the people business, after all,” said Bartsaikin, a multi-award winner at past NZ Mortgage Awards.

“As a judge I was looking more on the qualitative than quantitative – although settlement volumes and conversion ratios are an important factor, when you're looking at the best in any category whether an adviser had written $100 million or $150 million no longer becomes the reason why they should be a winner.”

But what does that look like exactly? Well, Bartsaikin said “being obsessive about the client experience is the difference that the winners bring to the industry”.

“They set the direction for all of the industry to strive toward,” he said.

Along with being obsessive about the client experience, Bartsaikin said advisers and businesses that have a defining point of difference also “really shine”.

“That point of difference could be the specific communities they engage with, contributions to the industry, whether directly or indirectly and ultimately why their clients and business partners enjoy working with them.”

Thanking the 2024 NZ Mortgage Award judges

NZ Adviser would like to thank all the 2024 NZMAs judges for generously contributing their time and expertise to study all the nominations and choose the winners. This list includes:

• Eugene Bartsaikin, Managing director, Twine Financial Advisers
• Adrienne Begbie, Managing Director, Prospa
• Ian Boyce, General Manager Property, Avanti Finance
• Trecia Brown, Head of Customer Outcomes, New Zealand Financial Services Group
• Sam Burgess, Head of Lending, First Mortgage Trust
• Jenny Campbell, Country Manager New Zealand, Finsure
• Linda Clay, Chief Executive Officer, Māori Women’s Development
• Colleen Dennehy, Network Sales Manager, Mike Pero Mortgages
• Dev Dhingra, Founder, CEO/Principle Adviser, The Fundmaster
• Cecilia Farrow, Consultant, Thrive Consulting
• Nick Goodall, Head of Research, CoreLogic NZ
• Kip Hanna, CEO, NZHL
• Glenys Holden, Chief Executive Officer, Norfolk Mortgage Trust
• Luke Jackson, Head of New Zealand, Resimac
• Keith McLaughlin, Managing Director, Centrix
• Lyn McMorran, Executive Director, Financial Services Federation (FSF)
• Patrick Middleton, CEO, CFML Loans
• Tony Mounce, Director, Tony Mounce Mortgages & Insurance
• Elyce Peters, Director and Mobile Mortgage Adviser, The Mortgage Girls
• Jeff Royle, Qualified Financial Paramedic, iLender Mortgage Brokers
• Katrina Shanks, Industry Expert
• Aaron Skilton, CEO, Liberty
• Carmen Vicelich, Founder & Global CEO, Valocity
• Dr. Pushpa Wood, Director, Financial Education & Research Centre, Massey University

NZ Mortgage Awards: Sponsors and partners

Organised by Key Media, the New Zealand Mortgage Awards couldn’t go ahead without the extensive support of its event partner, Liberty.

The event was also supported by a distinguished group of sponsors, including Avanti Finance, Finsure New Zealand, First Mortgage Trust, Link Financial Group, NZFSG, Pepper Money, Prospa, Resimac, and Basecorp Finance.