The rules around Google reviews for mortgage brokers and financial advisers draw a line most firms have never had explained to them. A review on your Google Business Profile and the same words pasted onto your homepage are different things. Only the second is advertising. Asking is permitted in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Publishing is where the rules bite.

None of this is legal advice. Every regulatory statement below links to the page I read on 6 September 2026. Your obligations depend on which regulator licenses you, so read the source and take advice on anything close to the line.

Why a review and a testimonial are not the same thing

A consumer review is something a client writes on a platform built to collect them. A testimonial is an advertising message. The US Federal Trade Commission draws that line in its guidance on the Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: "Most consumer reviews are not consumer testimonials, and most consumer testimonials are not consumer reviews."

The rest of the guidance explains when that changes.

A few answers further down, staff put the same point the other way around: a business that puts testimonials on its own website "is disseminating them and is not merely 'hosting' them".

So the review your client left on Google is a review. Lift it into a carousel on your site, a brochure or a LinkedIn post and it becomes an advertisement for a regulated service. Same words, different legal object. Collect without hesitating. Be careful what you republish.

Can financial advisers use testimonials?

Yes, in all three markets covered here. The condition is disclosure, not prohibition. Neither Australia nor the United Kingdom has ever banned adviser or broker testimonials. Both regulate the promotion if it is misleading.

United States: the SEC marketing rule

The SEC's fact sheet for the December 2020 rule states the condition plainly: "Advertisements must clearly and prominently disclose whether the person giving the testimonial or endorsement (the 'promoter') is a client and whether the promoter is compensated."

Read that twice, because it runs the opposite way to law and medicine. A solicitor may not confirm a client relationship in public. A registered investment adviser using a client's words as a testimonial has to say that person is a client.

Note also how wide an advertisement is. The definition covers "any direct or indirect communication an investment adviser makes that: (i) offers the investment adviser's investment advisory services with regard to securities to prospective clients or private fund investors". Worth holding in mind before you draft a public reply that reads like a pitch. The staff's marketing compliance FAQs were last updated on 15 January 2026.

Australia: ASIC, the Corporations Act and the credit rules

ASIC reissued Regulatory Guide 234 on 9 June 2026. It is for promoters of "financial products, financial advice services, credit products and credit services", which puts mortgage brokers squarely inside it alongside advisers.

On testimonials it is short, and there is no ban. RG 234.130: "Testimonials from individuals should be attributed to them and should be authentic." The obligations underneath are the general ones against misleading conduct: s1041H of the Corporations Act, s12DA and s12DB of the ASIC Act, and s154 of the National Credit Code for representations that induce someone into a credit contract.

The clause brokers miss is RG 234.187, on something another person wrote on your page. Where a promoter is not responsible for the initial publication, "if the promoter becomes aware of the message and decides not to remove it, the promoter will be considered responsible for the message". A review on your own Facebook page saying you got someone a rate nobody else could is now, in effect, your claim.

United Kingdom: FCA financial promotions

The FCA regulates advertising for mortgages and for retail investments, and its financial promotions page points to the sourcebook for each: MCOB for mortgage intermediaries, COBS for investment advice. Both carry the same standard. MCOB 3A.2.1R tells a firm communicating information to a customer to "take reasonable steps to do so in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading", and COBS 4.2.1R says "a firm must ensure that a communication or a financial promotion is fair, clear and not misleading".

The sharpest line for review work sits in the FCA's finalised guidance on financial promotions on social media, FG24/1, at paragraph 3.11. Whether sharing a customer's post amounts to a financial promotion depends on the content and the context, and then: "The firm is responsible for compliance if it shares the post, even though the firm did not generate the original content of the communication."

A repost is a promotion you now own. Same conclusion as the FTC's and ASIC's, reached three different ways.

How to get mortgage broker reviews: ask when the file closes

Settlement for a broker. The review meeting for an adviser. Both are the point where the client has just seen what the work was for and has nothing outstanding with you. Neither is the moment money changes hands.

Pick the stage your own system already records: the settled stage in the CRM for a brokerage, the paid invoice for an advice or accounting practice. Then ask on every file that closes, including the ones you would rather not hear back about.

Six brokers across two offices will not keep that up by hand. Cloutly runs it off the systems a finance firm already has: the ask fires when a HubSpot deal reaches the stage you nominate, or when a Xero invoice is marked paid. A repeat client stays one contact asked once, anyone who reviewed you in the last 90 days is skipped, and follow-ups stop the moment the review lands (review management for mortgage brokers and finance firms).

"We've been able to simply streamline the collection of reviews when we deliver our services to get some great, actionable feedback."

Remco Marcelis, Fractional CFO, Standard Ledger

Four rules for the ask itself, and they hold in every market above.

1. Send it from the person who did the work, by name. Clients review a broker, not a brand.
2. Do not draft the review. A review you wrote is your own communication wearing a client's name, which is where every regime above starts.
3. Attach nothing to it. The FTC rule allows unconditional incentives but bans any express or implied requirement that a review be positive. Its own example of an implied one: "Tell us how much you loved your visit to John's Steakhouse and get a $5 coupon."
4. Never put a rating question in front of the review link. Showing the link only to the people who answer well is review gating, and it builds a public rating that misrepresents your own clients. FTC staff say asking only the customers you think are happy "could violate the FTC Act".

One follow-up a few days later, then stop. Our review request email templates adapt cleanly to a settlement letter.

How to reply to a review without confirming the person was a client

The safe default is a reply that still works if the reviewer turns out to be the client's ex-partner, a competitor, or somebody who has mixed you up with a firm two suburbs away. That rules out thanking anyone for their business, naming the product, and correcting a fact about the file. Each of those confirms a relationship and then says something about it.

It also keeps you clear of a rule most firms have not read. Google's guidelines for representing your business do not allow "content, or solicitation of content, that contains private or confidential information such as personal financial information". That binds what you write in a reply, not only what the client wrote in the review.

Three firms, three reviews, three replies. All invented.

A five-star review naming the broker. At Ashby Home Loans, someone has written 200 words about Farah and a difficult settlement.

Thanks for writing all that out, and for naming Farah. We read these on Monday mornings and she is going to hate every second of it.

A complaint about fees. Calder & Vaughn, an advice practice, get two stars and a reviewer saying the fee was never explained.

We are sorry this is how it felt. Our fees are set out in writing before any work begins, and we would far rather talk someone through a charge than leave them sitting with it. We are not able to discuss an individual's affairs in a public forum. Our practice manager is on [phone] and will go through it properly.

An angry review about an outcome. Nettlefold Finance are accused of wasting six weeks and getting the loan declined.

We are sorry to read this. As a matter of policy we do not discuss anybody's finances in public, and we do not confirm or deny whether a person has dealt with the firm. Anyone with a concern about our service can write to the principal at [email] and will get an answer.

Number three is the one to keep on file. It answers nothing, and that is the whole of its job. It is written for the next reader rather than the reviewer, and what it tells them is that this firm does not discuss clients even when provoked. Our positive review response examples cover the easier cases.

When a review gives away the client's own financial details

A grateful client posts the loan amount, the rate, the lender, their deposit and what they earn, and the firm answers in the same detail because the client raised it first. The client waived their own privacy. They did not authorise you to publish anything, and no obligation of yours switches off because they spoke first.

Leave the numbers alone and use the third reply above. Then report the review: personal financial information is prohibited content under the guidelines quoted above, so a review reciting someone's income or loan balance breaches the policy on its face. The escalation path is in our guide to removing negative reviews from Google.

On your own site the question is different, and the FTC's answer is about consistency rather than content. Asked whether a business may have a policy of not publishing reviews that mention other products, staff say yes, "as long as your policy treats all such reviews equally, whether they are positive or negative". Write that criterion down now, rather than on the day a review makes you want one.

Where mortgage broker and adviser reviews actually count

Google, and the gap is not close. Your Business Profile is what a client meets when they search your firm by name, and it decides whether you appear in the map results for "mortgage broker near me". Google's guidance on local ranking is blunt about the reason: "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."

Two directories earn a profile if you work in the market they cover. Broker Pages gives each Australian broker their own claimable profile, though read its headline figure first: brokers there are "rated 4.99 on Broker Pages from 277,443 reviews". A score everybody has is not a score anybody chooses on. In the United Kingdom, VouchedFor covers financial and mortgage advisers, holds more than 310,000 client reviews, and says it verifies every reviewer's identity and never removes or edits a negative review. That second promise is what makes a directory worth an hour of your time.

Then check your own city on a phone, signed out. Whatever ranks above your website on your firm's name is where the next client forms an opinion of you.

Google reviews for mortgage brokers with more than one office

There is no group rating. A first-home buyer searching one suburb sees that office's profile and its 4.3, and the 4.9 your other three offices average is invisible to them. The weakest office is often the one that gets found.

So each office needs its own verified profile and its own asking, or the busy site keeps collecting while the quiet one keeps whatever rating it was left with in 2023. Someone still has to read and clear every office's reviews. An unanswered review at your smallest branch is exactly as public as one at your largest.

More for regulated firms

• Lawyer review examples, where the reply may not confirm a client at all.
• Online reputation management for doctors, the strictest version of the reply rule.
• How to get more Google reviews, the long version of the ask.

Common questions

Can financial advisers use client testimonials?

Yes. In the United States the SEC's marketing rule has permitted them since the 4 November 2022 compliance date, provided the advertisement clearly and prominently discloses whether the person is a client and whether they were compensated. Australia and the United Kingdom have no testimonial ban for advisers or brokers, but the promotion has to be authentic, attributed and not misleading.

Can a mortgage broker ask clients for Google reviews?

Yes, in all three markets above. Ask after settlement, from the broker who ran the file, with the review link in the message, and ask on every file that closes rather than the ones you expect to go well. Do not draft it, do not attach an incentive, and never put a rating question in front of the link.

Is a client review on my website a financial promotion?

Once you publish it, treat it as one. The FTC says a consumer review featured in marketing becomes a testimonial, ASIC's RG 234.187 makes a promoter responsible for a testimonial on its own page once it knows about it, and FCA guidance FG24/1 puts compliance for a shared customer post on the firm that shared it.

What do I do about a review that quotes my client's loan details?

Do not repeat any of it in your reply. Answer with the general template above, then report the review to Google: personal financial information is prohibited content under the Business Profile guidelines. If you republish reviews on your own site, exclude it under a written criterion you apply to positive and negative reviews alike.