Purple Circle Financial Services has taken out the MFAA Mentor Program Award for the third year running, with the win attributed to its Purple Pathways Mentoring Academy.
The result came on a strong night for the aggregator, which also picked up the Boutique Aggregator of the Year title. The win was announced at the MFAA National Excellence Awards, held on 22 July at Crown Melbourne following the MFAA National Conference.
Purple Pathways was designed to go beyond the industry's minimum mentoring requirements, combining structured education with daily training sessions, hands-on deal support, compliance guidance and lender policy training. The academy also offers business development support, sales coaching and access to an established broker community — all aimed at giving new entrants a genuine foundation rather than a checklist of compliance steps.
That approach appears to be paying off. The program's mentee retention rate sits at 74.8%, a figure the aggregator points to as evidence its mentoring model helps brokers not just enter the industry but stay and build sustainable businesses within it.
Purple Circle CEO Michael Stephens (pictured) said the third consecutive win carried particular weight.
"To win the Mentor Program Award for the third year in a row is an extraordinary honour," Stephens said.
He credited the result to the people behind the program rather than the framework itself: "This recognition is a credit to our mentors, our team and, most importantly, the mentees who put their trust in the program and commit themselves to building successful businesses in broking."
Beyond new entrants, the academy is also designed to support established brokers looking to expand their teams, giving incoming brokers structured training and mentoring support without placing the full development burden on the business owner.
Stephens linked the program's purpose to the industry's longer-term outlook.
"The future of broking depends on capable, ethical and confident brokers entering the industry with the right foundations," he said.
Purple Pathways, he added, is helping build "the sustainable broking businesses that will shape the industry's future."
That future is arriving faster than many expected. Australian brokers facilitated a record 81% of new residential home loans in the March quarter — up 4.2 percentage points year-on-year — raising the stakes for aggregators to get mentoring right as the channel keeps expanding.
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