There are many common reasons for trail payments to be missing or low. The Connective team cannot analyze your book for you, but there are tools available to help you find out why your Trail is reduced.
We can investigate specific loan accounts where you have identified that there may have been an error in your commission.
Before querying missing or reduced trail or missing commissions, please consider the following:
Lender Policies
Please ensure you are aware of the trail regulations each lender places on their products. All of the Lender Rates and Clawback Information is available in the Research App in Mercury.
Trail Variation Report
The Trail Variation Report highlights any payments that have decreased or increased by a defined threshold. This might help you find specific loans with issues.
Checking your Statement
The most common reasons for missing trail or commissions is due to discharged/closed accounts or offset balances.
In the Commissions App select Statements in the left hand panel, choose the statement where you have a concern and click either the Arrears and Discharge tabs in Mercury, or generate a Full Statement to view any comments from our Commissions Team.
Common Reasons for Missing Trail Commissions
Also consider the following:
Depending on the lender, trail may not be due until the second year of settlement.
If trail is paid in the first year of settlement, this will be paid the month after the initial upfront.
Depending on the lender/product, payments may be made on a pro-rata basis. (ie, if the loan settled on the 15th of July, you may only receive payments for half of the month).
If the LVR of your loan is below a certain threshold, some lenders/products may pay reduced trail.
Remember, trail is based on the balance of the loan account, not the loan amount. As the clients make repayments, the trail amount will decrease.
Trail is typically calculated daily, so it is reduced in shorter months (particularly in February, which you should expect to be 10% lower than January and March).
Some lenders impose conditions to ensure the ongoing payment of trail (e.g. maintenance of insurances).
If you are still unsure why trail is missing, or less than expected, please submit a Commission Enquiry and our Commissions Team will investigate.