As you know there are several costs that you have to pay when joining a broker firm. These costs are outlined below. Some of these fees are paid at time of transferring to RMA. We have pro-rated those fees so you don’t have to pay the full amount till the time of renewal (usually in June). The other fees are “ongoing costs” of doing business. Both types of fees are outlined below.
One-time costs
- The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) re-licenses all mortgage agents and brokers by March 31st every year (starting in 2008) along with the re-licensing fee they also require us to complete a re-licensing course.
- Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) requires us to pay an annual fee for their services. The full renewal fee is paid in June.
- E&O Insurance is also paid annually and is a mandatory requirement for being a licensed mortgage agent or broker in Ontario. The full renewal fee is paid in June.
- RMA charges an admin fee of $50 for processing your transfer, handling and processing the necessary fees to MPC, E&O, FSRA and getting you set-up with Equifax codes, setting up Filogix Expert.
- Equifax charges an annual fee of $105+hst as a Security Monitoring fee. This fee is payable two months after you transfer in and then once a year on the anniversary date of your transfer.
- MPC Fees are due at signing. If you are already a MPC member, once this this is confirmed by MPC, the money will be returned back to you.
- If you are currently licensed with FSRA you do not have to pay the fee again. FSRA fees are renewed every year on March 31. The transfer fee due on sign up applies to agents with a valid FSRA license.
- E&O Insurance and Administration fee are non-transferable and will be due.
- Fees now include HST where applicable.
PLEASE NOTE THAT FEES MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE E & O.E.
On-going costs
Access to the customer credit bureau information is provided by Equifax. This is an important part of your daily business for without them you would not be able to complete mortgage transactions. Equifax charges are billed monthly. You are only charged for the client credit bureaus that you accessed in the previous month.
- The cost of each client bureau is $7.80 + HST, which includes, the credit information, safe-scan and beacon score.
- The annual Equifax fee charged to each agent is called the Security Monitoring Fee and is billed to each agent when they join and on the anniversary of the month their code was issued by Equifax.