You have the option to receive advance instalments against your upcoming monthly commission payment.

1. How do advance instalment payments work?

The Advance Payments scheme works by making cash instalments equivalent to the amount of Up Front commission we have received for your loans, and that we anticipate you will be paid in the monthly commission batch.

The instalments that have been paid are then deducted from the amount paid when we issue your monthly statement and RCTI. So it is like getting your monthly payment in two or three chunks, instead of all at once.

2. When will advance payments be paid?

Instalments will be paid each Monday except where;

Planned instalment dates are shown on the payment calendar in the Wiki.

Please note that not every member who opts in will receive a payment on every advance payment date.

3. How much will advance payments be?

The advance will be the amount of up-front commission received and allocated, before any payee splits, multiplied by your ‘Instalment Percentage’ and rounded down to the nearest $100.

Advance payments will only be paid if the amount calculated is at least $500.

Advance payments will be cumulative. We will include all commission received and allocated since the last commission payment, and deduct prior advances from the payment:

4. Can I choose which commissions are used to calculate an instalment?

No. The advance payment is calculated based on all up-front commission received and allocated to your partner group.

5. Is Asset Finance commission included?

No. Connective Asset Finance already pays commission daily.

6. Why is trail commission excluded?

There will likely be clawbacks and adjustments applied to commissions that have been advanced. Trail commission is not included in this scheme in order to minimise the risk to Connective of being out of pocket when this happens.

7. What is the ‘Instalment Percentage’ for?

This is the percentage of your up-front commission that will be used to calculate your instalment. Connective calculate percentage based on your commission plan, and your expected level of payee splits. This is to minimise the risk that cash advances exceed the commission eventually paid to the Full Member.

If you are on the maximiser plan and do not have a history of doing commission splits, your percentage will be 100%. If You are on the Variable plan, and/or you do usually split some of your commission to Payees, your percentage will reflect this. For example, if you usually split 20% of commission, your percentage will be 80% (100% - 20%).

The Instalment Percentage will be calculated each month and visible in the Instalment section of the Membership Centre.

8. What happens if the Instalment Percentage doesn’t match up with my actual splits?

We understand that the portion of up-front commission that you split may vary every month so the Instalment Percentage probably won’t reflect what actually happens in a month. This doesn’t matter. As long as there’s enough being paid to your partner group to cover the instalments, your payees get paid as normal and your final payment is your total actual earnings less the instalments.

9. How will advance payments be recovered?

Connective will recover advance payments by deducting the cash amounts paid from monthly commission payments. Advances will be deducted from you Partner Group where possible. If the main group has insufficient commission income to cover the advances, any excess will be deducted from payees and/or carried forward.

10. What happens if there are clawbacks or adjustments that mean the advance payments exceed my final commission payment?

If advance payments paid exceed the value of commissions payable any unrecovered amount will be recovered from payees (if possible) and/or carried forward to subsequent months. If you are in arrears for this reason, further instalments will be suspended until your arrears are cleared.

11. If you deduct from payees how will you determine which payees to deduct from?

We will exercise our discretion when choosing which payees to deduct advances from. Should this result in underpayments to your payees please note it will be your responsibility to resolve these.

12. How do I opt in to receive advance payments?

You can opt in or out via the Membership Centre in Mercury. See this article for instructions.

14. Do I have to opt in?

No, participation in this scheme is optional. Members who choose not to opt-in will be paid commissions normally.

15. Do I have to opt in now, or can I choose to opt in later?

You can opt in at any time by visiting the Membership Centre. Any changes will be included in the scheme for the next instalment payment.

16. Can I opt out in the future?

Yes. You can opt out at any time by visiting the Membership Centre. If you opt out on the day a payment is made it may take effect before or after that payment.

17. Who is eligible?

All Connective full members are ordinarily eligible, but groups may be prevented from opting in, or have advances stopped, in certain circumstances such as:

Groups wishing to discuss their eligibility should contact their Partnership Manager.

18. What happens if I become ineligible after opting in?

If you have opted into the scheme but become ineligible (e.g. if you start a loan book transfer) you will stop receiving instalment payments. They will automatically be reinstated if the reason for your ineligibility is cleared.

19. How are brokers with Book Buyers agreements affected?

Brokers who have Book Buyers finance arrangements in place (loans secured on their trail income which Connective makes deductions for) will be provisionally ineligible for the scheme.

If any such brokers wish to participate in the scheme and believe they will have sufficient commission income to cover Book Buyers loan payments after any instalment deductions, they should contact their Partnership Manager.

20. Will I be able to view details of the advance payments in Mercury or a statement of the commissions used to calculate the advance instalment?

Details of instalments paid will be visible on your RCTI’s in Mercury, however no further breakdown or calculation will be available.

21. Will I get an RCTI for the instalment?

No. The instalments are prepayments against the RCTI that will be raised with the main commission payment. They are not taxable payments themselves so no RCTI is required.

A remittance advice email will be sent when instalments are paid.

22. Will I get a statement or summary of the specific commissions covered by advance payments?

We are unable to provide a statement of the commission used to calculate the instalment.

Your commission data in Mercury will update as normal and show any new commission and loan accounts. A view of interim commissions at the instalment date will give a good indication of the commission used to calculate the advance.

Your monthly commission statement will include all commission in the month, as it currently does, and your RCTI will show the total amount you have been paid including the instalments.

23. What do I do if I think an advance payment has been incorrectly calculated?

All advance payments ‘wash out’ when the main commission batch is paid, so errors are self-correcting and you will always be paid the amount on your final commission statement, therefore we would ask that you only raise queries in the event that you think there has been a significant error. If that does happen, you should raise a commissions helpdesk ticket through Mercury.

Additional payments due to issues with an instalment will only be made in exceptional circumstances.

24. Are there any changes to the ordinary commission payment processed and timetables?

No, these will continue as usual the primary monthly commission batch occurs around the 24th of each month, and the secondary batch around the 30th will continue to be made.

25. Does this affect my ability to do commission splits or the splitting timetable?

No. You can apply splits as normal, even after advances have been paid.

26. Can I have instalments paid to payees?

No. Instalments can only be paid directly to the entity with which we have a full member agreement.

27. Can you estimate the value of advance payment?

No. This is dependent upon individual lenders and when they pay Connective.

Based on historic data we can estimate that up to 50% of commission might be received in the first half of the month and available for calculation of instalments, but proportions paid will fluctuate according how close payments dates are to the main commission payment.

Amounts available for advance payments at the start and end of the calendar month are likely to be very small.