Family values above all else
AWARD-WINNING CAIRNS MORTGAGE BROKER ROGER WARD SAYS HE OWES A LOT TO HIS GREATEST INFLUENCES, WHO SET HIM ON A PATH TO POSITIVITY AND SUCCESS, WRITES
WHEN you think about it, the pillars of family and feminism are quite an important foundation for a mortgage broker.
So it is with Cairns Mortgage Brokers owner Roger Ward: a winner of the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia’s Regional Mortgage Broker of the Year award two years running, The Australian Mortgage Awards Queensland 2016 New Brokerage of the Year winner and MFAA 2018 Queensland Community Champion of the Year.
Not to mention, the 53year-old is a senior fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a qualified financial planner.
But all that success would not have been possible without some tremendous role models.
“I most miss my wonderful mother, Joan, who recently passed away and has been the most positive and loving influence in my life,” Mr Ward recalled.
“She raised my brother and two sisters in Western Sydney by herself. We were poor. I’m very grateful to have her, she was the most beautiful country girl and it was her guidance and commitment to family that put me in good stead.”
On the other side, father Frank received an Order of Australia for his unpaid, 21year role as a director of Skillshare, an organisation which trained women to re-enter the workforce after years outside.
“My father, aunt and uncle were all brought up in an orphanage and all came out superhuman. They said they were heavily influenced by the nuns who were great feminists,” Mr Ward said.
“We recently lost my greataunt, Joan Bielski, one of the great feminists of Australia. She influenced me to provide a pro-bono program to help women escape destructive financial relationships.
“Women are such a significant influence on the community, their lives are so complex, we need to be proactively supporting women.
“I see two or three women in that capacity a month. It is important to be making a contribution in some way. And once you develop a background in finance that’s something that could benefit others.”
Mr Ward, his wife Michelle and two children moved to Cairns six years ago as a way to spend more time as a family, despite the couple’s highly successful careers in Sydney.
“We owned a couple of properties in Port Douglas and after the GFC we’d pretty much had enough. We took a sabbatical in Port Douglas to see what would happen,” Mr Ward said. “We had so much
ROGER WARD, HIS WIFE MICHELLE AND TWO CHILDREN MOVED TO CAIRNS SIX YEARS AGO AS A WAY TO SPEND MORE TIME AS A FAMILY
more time for the children … so we decided to build a business and run it exactly how we wanted it.”
Such was its success, an offshoot has been established in Brisbane and Mr Ward rates his wife, who works as the firm’s marketing manager, and his children as his biggest personal achievements.
The family can be found boating on the Reef on weekends, often shaking their heads in disbelief at their luck to be enjoying something so many travel so far to see.
It is a far cry from Mr Ward’s job once a upon a time as a ski guide in Europe and lift operator in Thredbo.
“I love skiing and I am now having the enjoyment of teaching my kids,” he said.
“I am very grateful for the experience I had in Cairns. I thought I was good at my job when I left Sydney, but my engagement with the people of Cairns has made me a better mortgage broker.
“Mortgage broking is a bit more difficult in Cairns than it is in Sydney, because the borrowers have a lot more varied and complex incomes (from tourism and agribusiness).
“We have a strong consumer advocacy role in Cairns – financial institutions have been walking away from regional Australia. Finance is the oxygen small business breathes for growth and over the past two decades the intellectual capital has been walking away from regional Australia and the understanding in the capital cities is diminishing.
“There’s no problems in improving professional standards in the industry (as the recent royal commission suggested) … but if people start tinkering with mortgage brokers and how they get paid – they’re now paid by the banks and the banks would like us to be paid by consumers – we need to be very careful of the sustainability of the industry.
“The number one consumers who will suffer will be those in regional Australia.”
WOMEN ARE SUCH A SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE ON THE COMMUNITY, THEIR LIVES ARE SO COMPLEX, WE NEED TO BE PROACTIVELY SUPPORTING WOMEN ROGER WARD