Two brokerages offer 85 and 90. The 85 nets more. Here is the worksheet that shows why, and how to run every offer you get through it.
Written by A.I.M.I. Collective Mortgage Group, Brokerage editorial team
Published September 2026 · Last reviewed 11 September 2026
Recruiters lead with the split because it is the easiest number to say out loud. It is also the least useful on its own. What you keep is the split minus everything the brokerage charges, minus everything it makes you buy or do yourself, plus the value of everything it carries for you. Below are the eight lines. Run every offer through all eight, including ours, and the comparison usually flips at least once.
The headline. Ask whether it is flat or tiered, what volume moves it, whether it resets each year, and whether it differs for renewals, referrals and Deal Desk files.
Desk fees, transaction fees, E and O, technology fees, royalty or franchise fees, compliance fees, termination fees. Ask for every line in writing and add them up per funded file at your volume.
If the brokerage supplies leads, what do they cost and what is the split on a lead file. If it does not, what does your own marketing cost you per funded file today. Both belong on the sheet.
Your assistant, your processor, or your evenings. If the brokerage processes files and handles compliance at head office, that is a cost you stop paying. Value it at what you pay now.
What is included, what is a member rate and what is full price. A portal at no cost and a CRM at a member rate is a different line from a mandatory platform fee.
Templates, content, events and co branding you would otherwise buy. Count only what you would actually use.
Turnaround under the brokerage's lender status, hours saved by an underwriter on hard files, hours lost to a slow back office. An hour is worth what an hour of prospecting funds.
The file you cannot place, the compliance question, the 9pm call. Hard to price until the month it saves a $1.2 million file. Price it at one saved file a year and see what that does to the total.
Broker A funds $20 million a year. Offer one: 90 percent, $500 a month desk fee, $150 per file, no processing, own CRM at $200 a month. Offer two: 85 percent, no desk fee, no per file fee, processing and compliance carried, CRM at a member rate. At forty files a year, offer one costs roughly $12,000 in fees plus whatever an assistant or the evenings cost. Offer two gives up five points, about $10,000 at a 1 percent finder's fee, and hands back the assistant. Run your own numbers; the point is that the split alone got it wrong.
Book a confidential call. We will walk you through compensation, lender access and support, with every fee in writing.
Top tier competitive compensation set against your volume, every fee line in writing, no leads sold to you, processing and compliance carried at head office, the broker portal at no cost and BrokerDam at a member rate, top tier lender status from the first file, and the Deal Desk for the files you would otherwise lose. We walk through all eight against your own numbers on the call. Read the commission split guide and the questions to ask before you sign.
Compare us on net, not on split, and ask for the full cost list in writing before you sign anywhere, including here. The broker portal, compliance review, marketing support and payroll processing are included. BrokerDam is a separate paid product at a member rate rather than a bundled CRM. Compensation is top tier and competitive, set against your volume, and we put the number in writing on the call rather than on a web page.
Six things that decide whether a new mortgage agent funds files in year one: training, a mentor, lender status, underwriting support and a 90 day plan.
Ten brand names, three parent companies. Who owns what in Canada's mortgage brokerage networks and how that changes the way you read a recruiting pitch.
Most recruiting pitches compete on one number. A framework for comparing brokerages on what lands in your account after fees, royalties and lender status.
A recruiting conversation tells you what a brokerage wants to say. Fifteen questions on splits, fees, status, support and exit terms tell you the rest.
Bring the five items above to a discovery call and we will fill in all eight lines together, ours included.