Is delivering a market-leading customer service experience and achieving optimal financial outcomes for your clients still a priority for your business? If so, working with an established brokerage to support your accounting practice is key to achieving exactly that, Tom and Ben Hawley, founders of Azura Financial, explain on a recent episode of Accountants Daily Insider.
By partnering with a firm that can handle the full spectrum of lending requirements, not only will accountants become more knowledgeable about financing costs, processes, and policies, but can also be confident their clients are receiving a holistic approach to every major financial decision. This ensures clients access efficient and competitive financing solutions while also strengthening the value accountants can deliver.
Ultimately, Tom and Ben Hawley said the benefit lies in deepening client relationships, saving them time and money, improving their experience and outcomes, and reinforcing your role as a trusted advisor.
Tom Hawley: Being a great broker is about using every resource available and project managing every client to keep everyone informed and moving in the right direction. As a broker, you’re the central advocate sitting between the borrower, the lender, the solicitor, and often the accountant. It’s our job to make sure the lending process runs smoothly and that all the pieces come together seamlessly for the client.
Ben Hawley: One of the biggest advantages of a strong relationship between a broker and an accountant is that the client ends up with a much better outcome. I work closely with an accountant partner who I originally met through a mutual client. We were working together on that client’s loan and our working relationship just naturally evolved through that process.
Now, that same accountant often comes to me for information or advice for his clients, and I’m happy to help, share knowledge, offer guidance and add value, even when there’s no immediate transaction involved. Some people assume brokers want to connect with accountants purely for access to their clients, but for us, it’s about building a genuine partnership founded on trust, open communication, and doing what’s best for the client. It’s a two-way relationship that strengthens both of our businesses.
Tom Hawley: Everything we do at Azura Financial starts with thinking from the client’s perspective. As a customer, when you’re looking to make a financial decision, you call your accountant first, they’re your trusted advisor. But 99 times out of 100, people also have a debt component in their financial strategy, and that’s where we come in.
So from the client’s perspective, it’s probably not enough to work with just a single broker; you need a brokerage you can rely on - one with the scale, relationships, and expertise to manage the full spectrum of lending needs and keep you updated with what’s happening in the market. So the main benefits of a broker-accountant relationship are really all about the client.
Tom Hawley: Some accountants really go out of their way to try to understand lending and what’s happening in the market, and we’re big on supporting that through education. We originally built our business on referrals from real estate agents, but more recently we’ve been focusing on building deeper relationships with accounting firms because we see how powerful those connections can be.
When we start working with an accounting firm, we begin with an education piece -coming into their office, updating them on policy changes, and helping everyone understand how the process works. It’s all about building confidence and alignment from the start.
Tom Hawley: Absolutely. For accountants wanting to build a strong brokerage relationship, it’s crucial to find the right broker; someone who understands your clients and can deliver the right solutions for their needs.
Ben Hawley: And it’s not just about the individual broker, it’s also about the firm behind them. As a broker, at the end of the day, we all deal with the same lenders. But what makes the difference is the level of resources you have at hand, and your customer service and responsiveness, which is a big point of difference for us.
At Azura, we’ve got 18 brokers working on transactions every day, which means we’re constantly sharing insights and finding solutions quickly. If something urgent comes up, we can tap into that collective knowledge to get the right outcome fast. There’s real power in numbers.
Ben Hawley: Moving forward, people's need and desire for holistic advice is only going to continue to grow. Over the past decade, the financial landscape has become far more complex, and clients are looking for guidance from a team that can help them navigate it all. The value of having your accountant and broker working together has never been greater.
Tom Hawley: When we first got into broking, it was a lot easier to operate as a one-man show because there were fewer regulatory and administration requirements. But now, the industry has evolved. Brokers are gravitating toward larger firms that can provide infrastructure, compliance support, stronger relationships with the banks, and better overall client outcomes.
Many accounting firms used to have an in-house broker, but increasingly, they’re realising that partnering with a full-service brokerage delivers better results. I’ve already seen firms transition away from the in-house model to work more closely with external brokerages like ours, and that shift will only continue.
Tune in to hear more!
You can listen to the full episode with Tom and Ben Hawley below:
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