Rachael Howlett (pictured), finance strategist and team leader at Infinity, says the broking industry's shift away from being purely rate-driven is one of the most important developments reshaping the profession.
Howlett's path into broking wasn't a straight line. Her background was in events and operations management, before a chance meeting with mentor Graeme Holm redirected her career entirely. She moved from a personal banker role into broker support, then broking itself, before progressing to finance strategist and team leader at Infinity Group Australia.
Howlett, named one of Australian Broker's 5-Star Brokers for 2026, said the industry's growing complexity is precisely what drew her in.
"What really attracted me to it was the combination of numbers, strategy and people," she said. "You're dealing with one of the biggest financial decisions someone will ever make, and you have an opportunity to genuinely change their financial trajectory."
Howlett said technology and AI are rapidly eroding the value of brokers who compete purely on rate comparisons.
"If a broker's entire value proposition is "I can find you a home loan," that's going to become increasingly difficult to differentiate," she said.
Howlett’s solution isn't resistance to technology but repositioning around it.
"The solution isn't to fight technology. It's to use it to remove the administrative work and give brokers more time to provide strategy and build relationships," she said.
Howlett argued the profession needs to lift its educational standard as client circumstances grow more complex, particularly around investment lending and long-term borrowing structures, and that brokers should work more closely with accountants and financial planners to build a team of experts around each client.
That same forward-looking approach shapes how Howlett believes brokers should measure success.
"For me, the best brokers today aren't just asking, ‘Which lender will approve this?’, They're asking, ‘How does this decision affect where this client wants to be in five or ten years?’" she said.
That philosophy underpins Infinity's business model, which is built around helping clients pay off their home loans in under 10 years. Howlett said trust is central to sustaining these longer client relationships.
"People may initially come to you because they need finance, but they'll stay with you because they trust you, and trust is built through communication, education and doing what you said you were going to do," she said.
Her advice for brokers entering the industry reflects the same emphasis: understanding clients matters more than technical product knowledge alone.
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