Mortgage brokers and financial planners typically refer a client to a property funding alternative the way they’d refer to anything outside their own product licence: by sharing general information about the category, then pointing the client to the provider’s own disclosure documents and enquiry channel. The referral itself isn’t advice on the product — it hands the decision back to the client, informed, and backed by their own licensed adviser where one is needed. Non-loan funding alternatives sit outside a mortgage broker’s credit licence and outside most financial planners’ day-to-day product set, which is exactly why knowing where the category fits — and where a professional’s own obligations begin — matters before the conversation happens.

How do mortgage brokers and financial planners refer clients to property funding alternatives?

In practice, referral has four steps: recognise that a client’s situation fits the category, explain the option factually without recommending a specific provider, share that provider’s own Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Target Market Determination (TMD) and enquiry channel, and let the client make contact and decide for themselves. Nothing in those steps requires the referring professional to hold a licence covering the product itself — that’s the point of a referral rather than advice. MyBrix — the platform behind this blog — is one worked example of a provider a professional might point a client toward; our guide to how MyBrix works sets out the mechanics in full.

Where do non-loan funding alternatives fit in a client conversation?

The category tends to surface at a specific point: after a standard finance option has been ruled out or found unsuitable, not instead of exploring one. Common triggers include:

• A refinance or top-up doesn’t clear serviceability — age, income structure or existing debt gets in the way.
• The client wants funds without taking on more debt or compounding interest.
• The client wants to keep living in the home rather than sell or downsize.
• The client has already looked at a reverse mortgage or the government’s Home Equity Access Scheme and wants to understand a non-debt option too.

Our guide to accessing home equity without a loan lays out the non-debt options side by side — home reversion, shared equity, fractional sale and downsizing — with a comparison against debt-based routes. It’s a useful reference to send alongside any referral, and our guide to the risks of home equity release is a companion piece worth sharing too — it sets out the trade-offs across every option type, which keeps a referral honest about the downsides as well as the access.

What are the referral touchpoints?

Stage	What the professional does
Client raises the need	Notes non-loan, non-sale options exist alongside finance
General information	Explains the category factually, without favouring a provider
Referral	Shares the provider’s PDS, TMD and enquiry channel
Client’s own step	Client contacts the provider and decides independently

Each stage stays on the professional’s side of a clear line: general information about a category, not advice on a specific product they aren’t licensed to advise on.

What obligations does a professional have when referring a client?

General information and personal advice are different things, and a referral is designed to stay on the information side of that line — explaining what a category of product does, not recommending that a specific client use it. Where that line sits in any particular conversation is a question for the professional’s own compliance framework, not something this article can settle.

Mortgage brokers carry a best interests duty under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 when arranging credit. As at July 2026, that duty is a credit-assistance duty: ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 273 sets out that it applies to credit assistance on regulated credit products, and does not apply to non-credit products. A referral to a non-loan funding alternative sits outside it — fractional funding is a financial product under Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act rather than a loan, and home reversion is a property transaction rather than consumer credit, so neither is a credit contract the duty attaches to. Regulatory Guide 273 is also explicit that a professional must not imply the duty applies where it doesn’t, since that may be misleading or deceptive. What any individual broker must do on a particular referral is a question for their own licensing obligations and compliance framework, not one this article can settle for them. Financial planners advising on financial products operate under their own licensing and best-interests framework. Both sit alongside — not replaced by — the general point above: a referral should be shaped by what serves the client, not by what the referring professional stands to receive for making it.

What should a professional check about a provider before referring a client?

Check	Where the answer lives
Licensed or authorised, and by whom	ASIC’s professional registers
Product features, fees and risks	The provider’s PDS
Who the product is designed for	The Target Market Determination
Where complaints go	The PDS complaints section, then AFCA

A platform offering financial products to Australian retail clients must hold an Australian Financial Services Licence or act as an authorised representative of a licensee under the Corporations Act 2001, give retail clients a PDS, and — since 5 October 2021 — publish a TMD for each product. As at July 2026, MyBrix Pty Ltd ABN 37 669 479 636 is authorised representative 1304961 of Australian Financial Licensing Group, AFS Licence No. 269868, a position anyone can confirm on ASIC’s registers above. AFCA is a free, fair and independent dispute resolution scheme for financial product and service complaints, and MyBrix members have access to it. A licence isn’t an endorsement of the product, and AFCA membership isn’t either — both are checkable facts, not a recommendation this article is making.

On MyBrix specifically (as at July 2026): each listed property is divided into 10,000 Brix, a fractional economic interest in the property — not ownership of it and not a loan to the owner, who remains the registered legal owner throughout. A client’s minimum retained holding is generally 20% (2,000 Brix), the maximum term is 10 years, and the process runs application, a $99 property assessment, an independent licensed valuation (typically two to four weeks), then the funding offer to investors. Full mechanics are in our how MyBrix works guide — useful background before pointing a client toward it.

Where can brokers and planners find more information for their clients?

The category overview in our guide to accessing home equity without a loan is a reasonable first thing to share with a client who’s asking about non-loan options; MyBrix’s own PDS and TMD, available at mybrix.com.au, carry the product-specific detail from there. Whether MyBrix runs a formal referral or partner arrangement for brokers and planners, and on what terms, is a commercial detail outside this article’s general-information scope. The current terms, if any, are set out by MyBrix directly — contact MyBrix to confirm what applies. Professionals wanting that detail should contact MyBrix directly rather than infer it from this article.

General information can explain what a category of product is and where it sits alongside standard finance — it can’t tell a professional whether a specific client’s circumstances make it suitable, and it can’t replace either party’s own licensed compliance obligations.