Since 1996, Phil Rice — Australian Credit Licence holder and founder of multiple finance and business advisory ventures — has worked across the mortgage, finance, and professional services industries and witnessed firsthand the evolution of mortgage broking in Australia.

Over that time, the industry has matured significantly. Stronger compliance frameworks, the introduction of Best Interests Duty (BID), and rising professional standards have helped build consumer trust and elevate broker capability. These changes have strengthened the industry — but they have also come at a cost.

For brokers, the administrative burden has grown exponentially. Over the past decade alone, paperwork and process requirements have increased many times over. Brokers now navigate complex aggregator systems, multiple bank platforms, constant data entry, and end-to-end loan oversight — often performing much of the work traditionally handled by lenders themselves. At the same time, operating costs have continued to rise, including marketing, staffing, compliance, technology subscriptions, and the growing financial impact of clawbacks.

The result has been increasing pressure on brokers’ time, work-life balance, and income certainty.

A Broader Vision for the Industry

These challenges led Phil and his team to take a step back and ask a bigger question:
What would the broking industry look like if it were genuinely designed to support broker success — not just compliance?

That question became the foundation of Emerald Group Holdings — the umbrella entity bringing together a group of specialised businesses focused on strengthening broker businesses and careers through structure, innovation, and long-term thinking.

Emerald Group Holdings encompasses:

Better Business Coach (BBC) – delivering certified, broker-specific business coaching and education, heading up the FBAA Emerging Broker Academy

Business Advice Agency (BAA) – providing industry advocacy, legal frameworks, and business advisory solutions to all SME's

Emerald Edge – a front-end business management and automation platform for brokers

Property 360 Agency – an integrated real estate and finance ecosystem (launching 2026)

EZFinance & EZFinance Commercial – finance and credit solutions supporting consumers and business owners (piloting new systems and integrations)

Wiilson – Communications, networking and business collaboration.

Together, these businesses operate as a connected ecosystem — each solving a different problem, but all working toward the same goal: building stronger, more sustainable broker businesses.

From Compliance to Business Capability

While compliance, mentoring, and technical training are essential, Phil identified a deeper industry gap: brokers are rarely given the tools, coaching, or systems required to build a real business — one that can scale, operate efficiently, and hold value beyond the individual broker.

Better Business Coach (BBC) was created to address this gap, delivering structured, broker-specific business coaching designed to help brokers build profitable, sustainable businesses from the ground up. More recently, BBC was engaged by FBAA to run therir "New to Industry" broker Academy, which has gained raving reviews, highlighting a real need for business education for new brokers to curb the 20% to 50% failure rates.

That experience and insight directly impacted and influenced the development of Emerald Edge, with a business advisory/coaching element actually built into the EE platform, not bolted on as is the case with many other industry tools and mechanisms.

Why Emerald Edge Exists

Emerald Edge was born from the convergence of two realities:

Brokers are overwhelmed by administration and fragmented systems.

Advances in AI and automation now make it possible to fundamentally change how broker businesses operate.

Developed alongside an experienced SaaS and technology team, Emerald Edge is a purpose-built, front-end, business management and operations platform for brokers. It automates time-consuming tasks, streamlines workflows, consolidates multiple subscriptions, and introduces revenue-generating capabilities — turning what was once a cost burden into a cash-flow-positive solution.

More importantly, it transforms a broker operation into a structured, repeatable, and saleable business asset.

Built for Independence, Designed to Last

Emerald Edge is crafted exclusively with brokers in mind. It is not a gimmick, nor is it another bolt-on tool. It is a front-of-house platform that manages the business side of broking — while seamlessly complementing aggregator systems responsible for back-of-house loan processing.

Because Emerald Edge is entirely independent and white-labelled, brokers retain full control of their business infrastructure. This independence allows brokers to move between aggregators without business disruption, downtime, or the stress of rebuilding systems under pressure. Client relationships, CRM data, marketing activity, and operational workflows remain intact and secure at all times.

The business stays open. The momentum continues.

A Platform — and a Philosophy

Emerald Edge is more than technology. It is the practical expression of a broader vision:
to create an industry where brokers are supported by systems designed for them, not around them.

Backed by the collective capability of Emerald Group Holdings, Emerald Edge represents a new standard in broker business management — one built on independence, automation, and long-term sustainability.

No other platform delivers the same combination of flexibility, structure, and freedom.

This is broker business done properly — and built to last.