Meet Sarah Kane

I’m Sarah, I am 36 years of age and fully qualified Mortgage Advisor at SG Mortgage Specialist. I live in Hamilton, my hometown where I grew up. I have 16 year’s experience in the financial services industry, 10 of which have been dedicated to advising clients on their bespoke Mortgage and Protection Products.

I began my journey in the Financial Services Industry at First Direct Bank, as a Customer Services Representative in which I gained all my customer service experience. The Mortgage Advisor position came up just at the right time when I felt I needed a new challenge. Passing CF1 & CF6 Mortgage exams were a challenge, between juggling working hours and giving up a lot of social activities to study wasn’t easy in my early twenties. But what a relief when I had these qualifications under my belt. With the qualifications I had I wanted to broaden my horizons and begin advising in Whole of Market, which I knew would be a big change and a lot to take in for the better. My Whole of Market experience was gained at First Mortgage which I loved, and I gained a lot of knowledge and experience with all the different lenders available in the big world of Mortgages.

In 2018 I got married and my husband David and I began to plan a family, we had our first son Reece in June 2019, who is an absolute delight and has brought so much joy into our lives. But after returning from Maternity leave, I found it very difficult to adjust and have a work life balance. At this stage in my life, I decided to take a leap of faith and go self-employed and create a better work life balance. In June 2022 we had our second child Riley who is a little dream and has brought so much happiness into our lives and now with our family being complete it is safe to say that the self-employed route was the best decision in my career. 

As well as my family being a big achievement in my life, my job provides great satisfaction. Feedback from my clients, who have been through the process of home buying makes my job so worthwhile. The tailored advice given to each client to meet their needs and desire to buy their dream property and products to suit each client’s circumstances at the point of re-mortgage.

The process is streamlined and I like to ensure each client has full understanding of the Mortgage and Protection advice given. No question is silly when it is comes to purchase, remortgage or protect your home. I am available to clients while processing the necessary documents at each stage from beginning to end. I get great job satisfaction when receiving reviews such as: “I have settled into my new home and thank you for making the process stress free”. These comments make it all worthwhile and demonstrate the commitment I have to my clients, this positive feedback is what has helped me grow my client bank.

My free time is spent with family and friends, whether dining out or a few drinks catching up. I endeavour to make some time for a few gym classes, most of all I look forward to family holidays and quality relaxing time.

Not every day is the same and feel every day is a school day, my eldest son is at nursery and family help out with childcare with my youngest son. However, being self-employed allows me to work my own hours and get to spend extra time with our boys. Mum life is busy on its own, between kids clubs and keeping up on day to day chores but my husband and I are a good team to make time for
everything we feel is important for our little family. Working from home allows me to sign on to suit my client’s need’s, even if that means a late night while kids are in bed, it works well for both parties, especially those with young kids also. I have flexible working hours and I do whatever I can to make life easier for my clients and ensure they have a good experience throughout their mortgage journey.

At the moment I am prioritising providing a good quality service and plan on promoting my business further to service new clients as well as servicing my existing client base. I am a firm believer in implementing my core values as a mortgage advisor, these values are:

– Trust – which is highly important to my clients to feel they have full confidently discussing their finances.

– Integrity – to ensure I am providing the best advice, following correct guidelines to prevent any risk to myself or my clients.

– Honesty – it is pivotal in my position to be open and upfront and meet all compliance regulations required by the Financial Conduct Authority as I have a duty of care to follow the correct process for the protection of myself and clients.

– Communication – good listening skills to enable me to provide best advice based on information provided by each client to suit individual needs.

The mortgage industry is forever changing with updates all the time and it is always important to complete annual training and keep up to date with FCA compliance requirements. Being registered with mainstream lenders, I receive regular new letters and literature which keeps me up to date with what’s happening in the mortgage industry.

Working in the mortgage industry is a challenging but rewarding job, and my advice to anyone looking to pursue a career in mortgages would be to study hard, be organised, attentive and above all else be confident in yourself. I have always found the good days outweigh the bad and there is no greater accomplishment than knowing you helped someone achieve their goal.

I am currently enjoying being part of Contemporary Financial Solutions team, who have not only given me the support and technology to carry out my day-to-day position as a Mortgage & Protection Advisor but a fantastic working environment. Since starting with Contemporary I have felt a very positive vibe around the people I work with and I‘m looking forward to see what the future holds for myself and my business.