Nova Scotia regulates mortgage brokering under the Mortgage Regulation Act, administered by Service Nova Scotia, with five licence categories: mortgage lender, mortgage brokerage, mortgage broker, associate mortgage broker, and mortgage administrator. Only two apply to individuals — broker and associate mortgage broker — and almost every new entrant starts as an associate mortgage broker, working under a designated mortgage broker's supervision, since it's the entry point most sponsoring brokerages actually hire into.
Eligibility requires being 19 or older, a Canadian resident, willing to work under a brokerage that applies on the applicant's behalf, and a criminal record check completed no more than three months before applying. The required education is the Nova Scotia Associate Mortgage Broker Course through Mortgage Professionals Canada — roughly 40 hours online with a final exam, priced at $375 (e-text) or $425 (printed) — with exemptions available for holders of an equivalent licence from BC, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, or Saskatchewan. Applications go through the sponsoring brokerage's principal broker, not the applicant directly, and the licence fee is $300 for either the associate mortgage broker or mortgage broker licence, with Service Nova Scotia stating it should take about two weeks to receive the licence.
Moving from associate mortgage broker to full mortgage broker requires having held the associate licence for at least 12 of the preceding 24 months, plus completing the Nova Scotia Mortgage Broker Education Program and a separate Regulatory Information Program, unless exempt. Every Nova Scotia licence — associate, broker, brokerage, or administrator — renews on the same fixed calendar date: October 31 each year, expiring on October 31 of the calendar year immediately after issue or renewal, with a renewal application required to reach the Registrar at least 10 days before that expiry.
The continuing-education program required for renewal has to cover topics relevant to at least two of the competencies the Mortgage Broker Regulators' Council of Canada has established for brokers and associates — Service Nova Scotia's published materials don't list a fixed hours-per-cycle number, so confirm current specifics directly with the Registrar or a CE provider. A fresh criminal record check isn't required at renewal if the applicant confirms in writing that nothing has changed since the last one submitted. A licensed brokerage must maintain E&O insurance at all times its licence is active — at least $500,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate over 365 days — extending automatically to the brokers and associates it authorizes.
New Brunswick licenses four categories under the Mortgage Brokers Act, through the Financial and Consumer Services Commission (FCNB): mortgage brokerage, mortgage broker, mortgage associate, and mortgage administrator. The mortgage associate licence is the individual entry point, requiring applicants to be 19 or older, a Canadian resident, and to provide a criminal record check issued within the last six months. A defining rule in New Brunswick: an associate can only work for one brokerage at a time, and the licence doesn't transfer — changing brokerages means terminating the existing licence and reapplying under the new one.
The required education is the New Brunswick Mortgage Associate Course, delivered online by Mortgage Professionals Canada, priced the same as Nova Scotia's — $375 e-text or $425 printed. The associate licence carries a $300 application fee and a $300 annual fee due March 31 each year, matching the fee structure for a full mortgage broker licence, while brokerage and administrator licences run $600 for each.
Upgrading to broker requires demonstrating at least 24 months of experience as a licensed mortgage associate within the preceding 36-month period — a rolling window, not a simple two-years-and-done count, which gives some room for a gap in licensing without resetting the clock entirely as long as 24 of the most recent 36 months were actually spent licensed. On top of that experience, the New Brunswick Mortgage Broker Education Program ($495 online, requiring the associate course as a prerequisite) has to be completed, and the broker licence application filed within three years of finishing that program, with continuing-education requirements to be met within three months of the licence being issued.
FCNB recognizes two ways around the standard path. First, holders of certain equivalent broker-level licences — from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, or Nova Scotia — are exempted from the education and experience requirement outright. Second, an applicant without one of those specific licences can request an education equivalency exemption directly, requiring a current résumé, a signed employer support letter, confirmation of having supervised at least five brokers or associates, principal broker confirmation, and a one-time $300 fee. A broker licence and a brokerage licence remain separate — becoming a broker doesn't automatically mean running a brokerage, though a new brokerage's designated principal broker does have to promptly apply for their own broker licence.
Newfoundland and Labrador overhauled its entire mortgage broker framework on April 1, 2025, when the Mortgage Brokerages and Brokers Act, SNL 2023, c. M-17.1, replaced the previous Mortgage Brokers Act, administered by Digital Government and Service NL. The structural difference from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is significant: there's no associate tier at all, and no separate mortgage administrator licence category. Just two licences exist — Mortgage Brokerage for the business, and Mortgage Broker for the individual who brokers mortgages on its behalf, sponsored by a licensed NL brokerage from day one rather than working up from a supervised entry tier.
An applicant must complete the Newfoundland and Labrador Mortgage Broker Course (or an approved training program in their home jurisdiction), while anyone designated as a brokerage's principal broker additionally needs the Newfoundland and Labrador Mortgage Brokerage Management Course. Both are delivered by Mortgage Professionals Canada, priced the same as elsewhere ($375–$425 for the broker course, $495 for the management course), and both required a Criminal Record Check from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, the RCMP, or another minister-approved organization. Licensing fees are the lowest of the three Atlantic provinces: $200 for an individual mortgage broker licence, $400 for a brokerage licence. Because there's no separate administrator licence, brokerages themselves carry the trust-account obligations that role would otherwise handle elsewhere — an approved trust account, funds kept separate from all others, payment to the lender within 30 days of receipt, and monthly reconciliations reviewed by an officer other than the one who prepared them — on top of a mandatory $500,000 E&O policy at the brokerage level. Renewal runs on a rolling date, not a fixed calendar day: annual reports and fees come due on the last day of the month, 12 months from the effective date of a licensee's original registration.
A mortgage professional familiar with Nova Scotia's associate-then-broker structure starts researching Newfoundland and Labrador's licensing framework and assumes it works the same way. What will they find is different?
NL's Mortgage Brokerages and Brokers Act, in force since April 1, 2025, is structurally different from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick specifically because it dropped the associate tier and the separate administrator licence category — a new entrant is licensed directly as a Mortgage Broker rather than starting supervised. NL still requires brokerage sponsorship, just without an intermediate tier beneath the broker licence, and its fees are actually the lowest of the three provinces ($200 for the individual licence), not the highest.
The intro and first module are free to read. Add your name and email once and the rest of this course opens — along with every other course on the site. No card, no trial.
Already unlocked on another device?
