What does ‘whole of market’ mean?
A whole-of-market broker can choose from across the lending market, rather than a single lender (tied) or a limited list (panel). For contractors, that breadth is what makes it possible to reach the specialist lenders who assess contract income properly.
The three types of adviser
- Tied — can only offer one lender’s products (for example, a bank branch).
- Panel / multi-tied — limited to a set list of lenders.
- Whole of market — can select from across the available market to find the most suitable lender and product.
Why it matters for contractors
Contractor lending lives in the specialist corners of the market — lenders with contract-based criteria, retained-profit policies or CIS gross-up. A tied or narrow-panel adviser may simply not have access to them, leaving you with a decline or a low offer. Whole-of-market access is what lets the right lender be found at all.
It also means the recommendation is driven by suitability rather than by which single lender happens to be available.
Whole of market vs ‘independent’
The terms overlap but aren’t identical. What matters in practice is the breadth of lender access and that advice is based on your circumstances. We’re a whole-of-market, directly authorised firm.
- Tied = one lender; panel = a list; whole of market = the broad market.
- Specialist contractor lenders often sit outside narrow panels.
- Breadth of access directly affects whether you’re approved — and your rate.
- Ask any adviser how many lenders they can actually place with.
What breadth actually buys a contractor
For a salaried borrower, panel size is a convenience — most lenders will assess a payslip the same way, so the difference is largely pricing. For a contractor it is the whole game, because lenders differ not only on rate but on whether they can read your income at all.
A restricted panel might contain excellent rates and not a single lender that annualises a day rate. The adviser is not being unhelpful; the products simply are not there. That is why the question to ask is not "how many lenders" but "how many lenders that assess income like mine".
Independent, and what that changes
Being directly authorised means the firm holds its own permissions from the regulator rather than operating under someone else's. In practice that removes a layer of restriction on what can be recommended, and it means accountability sits with the firm you are dealing with rather than with a network above it.
It does not, by itself, make advice better — plenty of appointed representatives give excellent advice. What it does is remove one category of constraint on which lenders can be approached, which matters more in specialist lending than in mainstream cases.
Choosing an adviser, answered
Is whole of market always cheaper?+
Not automatically, but it gives the best chance of the right outcome — especially for non-standard income, where the cheapest mainstream rate may be unavailable to you and a specialist lender is needed.
How do I check an adviser’s access?+
Ask directly whether they’re tied, panel or whole of market, and how they’re authorised. A whole-of-market, directly authorised firm can place across the market.
Does whole of market include every single lender?+
No adviser literally accesses every product (some lenders are direct-only), but a whole-of-market broker draws from across the available intermediary market rather than a narrow list.
Does whole of market mean every lender?+
It means the adviser can access the broad market rather than a restricted panel, but a small number of lenders sell only direct to consumers and are therefore outside any broker's reach. A good adviser will tell you when a direct-only lender might suit you, even though they cannot arrange it for you.