Profile
Scott Phillips spent three years in retirement planning before a single observation redirected his career. For almost every client he worked with, the family home was their single biggest asset, yet the equity tied up in it was rarely treated as part of the retirement funding conversation unless someone was moving into aged care.
Phillips, a co-founder and managing director of Your Home Equity, saw this as a major gap, and it has shaped his work since. The insight sent him into the over-55s lending space in 2016, after two decades in banking from 1989 and a spell in retirement planning.
What surprised him most was where the need was greatest: much of the work is helping older Australians refinance debt carried into retirement, often serviced on pension income. “Too many Australians are asset-rich but cash flow-constrained,” he says.
Your Home Equity was built around solving that problem and helping older Australians stay in their family home longer, whether for another two, three, five or 10 years, rather than being forced to sell.
“At its core, the business exists to help clients manage debt in later life with more confidence, flexibility and dignity,” Phillips says. For someone living on the age pension, removing a mortgage repayment can be the difference between just getting by and a more comfortable, dignified retirement.
Approachability is the quality Phillips values most in himself. Clients are often making difficult financial decisions late in life, and he sees his job as meeting people where they are, financially, emotionally and personally, then guiding them to their best outcome.
He is comfortable working with people from all walks of life and financial positions, focused on what they want and helping them find the right path. Central to the business is a bespoke, modular, step-by-step process he has refined over years, delivering information in stages so clients can absorb it, reflect and decide at their own pace, a departure from the old model of completing a fact find and presenting a solution on the spot. Phillips has specialised exclusively in reverse mortgages and over-55s home lending for the past 10 years, and everything runs through a discipline of solving not the immediate problem but the right one, which starts with two questions: what a client wants and what alternatives they have considered. Transparency reinforces trust: cost information is provided early, and a “no loan, no fee” guarantee lets clients explore options without pressure. Before formally submitting, Phillips’ team also scenario-tests transactions with lenders anonymously, pinpointing the product that best fits a client’s objectives. He regards his contribution to the evolution of the reverse mortgage and over-55s lending sector as his definitive career achievement, from co-founding a fintech broking business to confounding a fintech broker and a non bank lender for over-55s. What matters to him is less the model itself than what it makes possible: bringing a once-overlooked sector closer to mainstream acceptance and helping clients stay in their homes longer with dignity, choice and financial stability.
Office 1, 10 Eastbrook Terrace, East Perth WA 6004
08 6328 1584
scott@yourhomeequity.com.au
linkedin.com/in/scott-phillips-859a8319/
yourhomeequity.com.au/
Scott Phillips
Co-Founder, Managing Director and
Reverse Mortgage Broker Your Home Equity
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Bio
Milestones
1989–2001
2001–2012
2013–2016
2016–2023
2023–Present
Westpac – Customer Service, Branch Banking, Personal Lending and Home Loans
1989–2001
Westpac – Commercial Banking and Financial Planning
2001–2012
WA State Manager, StatePlus – Retirement Planning
2013–2016
Founder of a Fintech Brokerage/Non-Bank Lender – Reverse Mortgages
2016–2023
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Your Home Equity
2023–Present
Milestones
As a founding member of WOW! (Women. Opportunity. Winning.), an employee resource group created for all women of Ryan Specialty, Phillips Topping has long championed for women in the industry.
“It’s very important to set an example and to not only inspire but mentor other females,” she adds.
In addition to her sharp marketing eye, the key to Phillips Topping’s success lies in her high-energy approach and positive attitude.
“As the leader of a team, it’s important to motivate and encourage your team members. People work very hard and do their best and it’s important to recognize these efforts. For my career overall, my attitude has been one of curiosity. The more you can learn, the better you’ll understand the business, and then the deeper your knowledge will become, making you a better team member.”
Chief underwriting officer of executive risk at Chubb
President of financial insurance solutions at Kemper
Chief underwriting officer at Axis Capital
CEO of global Insurance at Endurance
CEO of global Insurance at Sompo International
Empathy underpins that discipline. Prickett has struggled in the industry. She has felt what it is like when promised support does not materialize. Having worked across almost every function in the company, she understands operational detail and the pressure agents face. That shared experience shapes her leadership.
Structural barriers also shaped her path. As a woman and a mother, she encountered the assumption that serious business building required keeping priorities “out of order for a time.” She also experienced the double standard that frames firm women as difficult while praising similar behaviour in men.
“If you have a choice between being liked and doing the right thing, doing the right thing is always better, even if it’s the unpopular thing,” Prickett says.
She wants to dismantle the expectation that women must choose between career and family, or between strength and kindness. In her view, leadership demands both conviction and care.
Being named an Elite Woman carries weight. Prickett did not have female role models in the industry when she started. She hopes visibility changes that. “I hope I can be an example. Not of perfection, but of persistence. Of building from your values and staying true to who you are.”
The legacy Prickett is still defining centres on proof – proof that a large, profitable company can grow without sacrificing integrity; proof that agents can build real assets while keeping their priorities intact; and proof that leadership does not require abandoning who you are to succeed.
“If you have a choice between being liked and doing the right thing, doing the right thing is always better, even if it’s the unpopular thing”
Lee-Ann Prickett,
Experior Financial Group
“What I’ve learned is that when you build from your values, when you put people first, when you do the right thing even when it’s hard, that becomes your plan”
Lee-Ann Prickett,
Experior Financial Group