Why Mortgage Advice Brokerage chose Acre
.webp)
About MAB
Mortgage Advice Brokerage (MAB) is an independent, family-run mortgage and protection brokerage with offices in Glasgow and Dunblane. We spoke to Directors George Williamson and David Rolleston about why they decided to switch systems to Acre, and what their favourite features are so far.
With a strong focus on client satisfaction, MAB was looking for a technology provider that could help them deliver modern, digital experiences for their clients. The goal was to make it easier for clients to upload all their necessary information so that meetings were less focused on filling out fact finds, and more about diving straight into delivering valuable advice.
Client portal is king
Since the pandemic, a lot of client services that were previously being delivered through face-to-face meetings have had to quickly switch to being managed digitally and asynchronously. The Acre client portal was designed to be more than simply an online fact find, we wanted to provide a fully featured collaboration tool that let clients become more active in the process. This helps brokers deliver the same high level of service as before, leveraging technology to save time and increase productivity.
“A client portal is the whole reason we shopped around. We weren’t happy with our previous provider's portal. We looked at a lot of different providers out there, about six or seven. Since COVID, we do most things remotely and so the main thing is the client portal.”
A full picture up-front
“What we're finding is we're getting between 70% and 95% of all the hard facts completed by clients. The real game changer is A) having that upfront before the first meeting and B) the credit file. So you can see if there are any blips or anything there. And it's also allowing us to be really productive in that first meeting.”
A lot of time can be spent on gathering basic client information in the first meeting, but this isn’t the true value that mortgage advisors bring to their clients. Acre’s client portal lets clients share their information and documents, and pull a soft credit report, all before the first meeting. This means advisors can understand their situation as early as possible and focus instead on more impactful conversations right away.
“It's all there and done and dusted. And even better when they do the electronic ID checks, pull through the credit report and actually complete their income and upload documents which many, many clients do. So you can be really well prepared, and that's a godsend!”
Improved team collaboration
“We’ve got admin staff and case managers in different offices, so we can see who's doing what bit of work at any point in time. And it's very easy, from a management point of view, to actually see that kind of good overview not just of what I'm doing, but what the whole business is doing”
As well as improving communication and collaboration with clients, Acre has helped with teamwork through features such as diarised reminders which can be assigned, as well as referring cases between team members.
“We’ve just taken on a new protection broker so we can actually now do the referral link rather than doing protection ourselves if we’re really busy we're referring over to our new broker, so that's a very slick process. It puts notes into his diary so he can just pick up and run with that on the protection side so it works very, very well”
Acre is now Score
What's changed?
What's changing is the name and the way we look. Acre is now trading as Score, with a fresh brand identity to match, but everything you rely on stays exactly where it is. It's still the same mortgage all-in-one platform that advisors, firms, and networks across the country already use to grow their businesses, now presented under a name that brings us in line with the wider ClearScore Group.
Why the new name?
ClearScore acquired Acre earlier this year, and we've carried plenty of momentum into life as part of the Group since. Moving to the Score brand is a natural next step, because it brings us in line with ClearScore and reflects the mission we share, which is to make home buying quicker and easier and to help people take control of their financial lives. As our founder and Managing Director Justus Brown has put it, the day-to-day service you receive won't change at all, and bringing our brand together with the Group simply makes that shared mission clearer.
Has the mission changed?
Not in the slightest! We have always been here to make home buying quicker and easier, taking the pain out of the process so that people can get into their homes sooner, and that is exactly what we will keep doing, with a good deal more behind us now to do it well.
Will the service change?
No, it won't, you'll continue working with the same platform and the same people, and your existing contracts and commercial terms stay exactly as they are, still held with the same legal entity, Acre Platforms Limited. Our Customer Success team will keep looking after you just as they do today.
About ClearScore
Who is ClearScore?
The ClearScore Group is a global leader in financial marketplaces, helping over 27 million people access credit, insurance, and other financial products with greater transparency, fairness, and control. It founded its flagship UK credit marketplace in 2015, has since expanded across four continents and into new verticals such as its DriveScore app, and now works with over 200 partners worldwide. ClearScore is profitable, growing, and on a mission to make personal finance clearer, calmer, and easier to understand, and that mission runs right through its culture, along with a genuine belief in giving people more clarity and control over their money.
How do we fit into ClearScore?
We sit alongside ClearScore's other technology platforms, including D•One, its open banking service for lenders, together powering borrowing and home lending across unsecured credit, auto finance, and now mortgages.
What does the change
unlock?
What does joining ClearScore bring?
Joining ClearScore gives us a great deal more room to grow. With their backing, we can accelerate our technology roadmap and bring new AI-powered features to the platform faster than we could before, and we can enrich what we build with ClearScore's proprietary data and insights, getting cutting-edge technology into the hands of mortgage and protection businesses sooner.
What do brokers and firms stand to gain?
For the brokers and firms who use us, it really comes down to growing faster. Drawing on ClearScore's financial power and its UK user base of over 16 million, we can build the features you ask for more quickly and bring more leads into the ecosystem, which gives brokers, networks, and advisors more opportunities to win new business.
Is the business growing?
We're growing quickly, and so are the firms who build their business on the platform. Since the acquisition, we've seen record numbers of monthly mortgage submissions come through Score, and we've more than doubled our revenue year on year, with growth of over 2.5x. That momentum is showing up in our customers' businesses too: firms on the platform are saving each broker around four days a month on application processing, identifying protection needs for 85% of their mortgage clients, and doubling their client conversion rates. Delivering results like these takes serious engineering and serious investment, and with ClearScore behind us we can keep raising that bar at a pace few others in the market can match.
Why build your business on Score?
Because you'll be choosing a platform that is built to last. A lot of new mortgage tools have appeared lately, and many of them are small, pop-up CRMs put together quickly on basic AI, the kind of thing that can disappear just as fast as it arrived. Score is a very different proposition, we are an established, whole-of-market platform that brokers, networks, and advisors across the country already trust with their businesses, and we are now backed by one of the most advanced and reliable fintech stacks in the industry through ClearScore. A proven platform, real investment, and genuine scale mean we can keep powering ahead of newer, lighter-weight tools and keep building for the long term.
Independence and
ownership
Is Acre being absorbed into ClearScore?
No. We operate as an independent business unit within the ClearScore Group, with our full management team staying exactly where they are, and we'll carry on supporting mortgage and protection firms with the same data-driven platform, now with the reach and scale of the wider Group behind us.
Will our advice-first philosophy change?
No. We have always believed that the best mortgage decisions come from high-quality, personal advice, and it is a belief ClearScore shares. If anything, the direction the market is heading only reinforces it, which is why we will stay a whole-of-market platform focused on helping brokers do their very best work for their clients.
Your data
Is my data safe?
Yes, and nothing about the move to Score changes that. Your data, and your clients' data, is protected by exactly the same contractual obligations and technical safeguards as before, and being part of ClearScore does not give anyone new access to it. We will never introduce your customers to a third party without the right consent, and your clients always keep the rights to their own data. If anything, joining a group whose entire business is built on handling data responsibly, and only ever with the user's permission, raises the bar we hold ourselves to.
The best way to see what Score can do is to book a demo, and we'll walk you through the platform and how it could work for your firm. If you'd rather drop us a line, you can reach our sales team at sales@scoremortgage.com, or send any general enquiries to hello@scoremortgage.com.