Since October 13, 2026, a BC mortgage broker who wants commissions paid to a company needs a personal mortgage corporation with its own BCFSA licence. I incorporate the company, or reorganize the one you already have so it qualifies, on a fixed fee quoted before I start.
The Mortgage Services Act came into force on October 13, 2026 and replaced the Mortgage Brokers Act. From that date, a mortgage broker or principal broker can be paid through a corporation only if it is licensed by BCFSA as a personal mortgage corporation (PMC), in addition to the broker's individual licence. Section 24 of the Mortgage Services Regulation sets the structure, and it is strict:
The full rules, and the traps in each, are in my article on BC personal mortgage corporations.
A new PMC. I check your proposed name against BCFSA's naming statement, design the voting and non-voting share classes, incorporate with the approved name, and organize the company: articles, organizational resolutions, share issuances, the securities register, the transparency register and a minute book. You finish with the corporate documents the licence application relies on.
An existing company. Many brokers already pay commissions to a numbered company, often one that was registered as a brokerage under the old Act. I review its minute book and share register against section 24. The usual problems are a spouse or holding company in the voting shares, a second director, or a company that also owns a rental property or an investment portfolio. Some of those can be fixed by reorganizing the shares and the board and changing the name. Others mean the old company should stay as it is, as a family holding company, with a new PMC beside it. Winding up the old brokerage registration with BCFSA does not dissolve the company; it stays on the BC registry.
Incorporating before BCFSA approves the name can mean a second filing to change it. Brokers who wound up their brokerage registration and filed BCFSA's acknowledgement form by May 29, 2026 must apply for the PMC licence by December 31, 2026.
My fee is fixed and quoted before work starts — after a short call for a new PMC, and after I have seen the company's records for a conversion, since the work depends on what is in them. Government and regulator fees are passed through at cost. BCFSA's published PMC fees are:
BC Registries charges its own fees for the name request and the incorporation or name change.
That is mostly a tax question for your accountant. Income kept in the company is taxed at BC's small business rate of 11% on the first $500,000, against personal rates as high as 53.5%, so the benefit is deferral: it grows the more you leave in the company. Paying dividends to family members on their non-voting shares usually saves little, because the tax on split income generally applies to them. If you spend most of what you earn each year, the licence fees and annual record-keeping may outweigh the deferral. I work with your accountant on the share structure so the corporate side matches the tax advice.
I am Koby Smutylo, principal of Smutylo Law+. I was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2001 and my practice includes incorporating and reorganizing private companies, among them professional corporations for regulated professionals. My application for call to the Law Society of British Columbia is pending; until it is granted, I take on BC matters only as the Law Society of BC's interjurisdictional practice rules permit. Meetings are by video, and I have a BC line at 604.937.6006.
Nothing requires one. BCFSA strongly recommends legal and/or accounting advice before you incorporate, change a share structure or dissolve a company, and the BC Registries helpdesk will not advise on how to structure a corporation. The licence application asks you to confirm the company meets section 24 of the Mortgage Services Regulation, so the records have to support that answer.
Sometimes. It can if you own every voting share, you are its only director and officer, any non-voting shares are held only by you or an affiliated person, and it does nothing but mortgage services. A company that holds rental property, has a spouse or holding company in the voting shares, or runs another business usually has to be reorganized first, or left as it is beside a new PMC.
Non-voting shares only. Your spouse, your child, a corporation wholly owned by you, your spouse or your children, or a trust whose only beneficiaries are those people may hold them. Every voting share must be yours. If your spouse is also a licensee, they need a PMC of their own.
No. It must include the full words “personal mortgage corporation”, unabbreviated, and BCFSA must approve it before BC Registries will accept it. BCFSA recommends using your legal name or a short form of it, such as Jane Doe Personal Mortgage Corporation, and says that may help the approval go faster.
It cannot hold real estate or develop it, and any investing has to stay modest and secondary to earning mortgage commissions. A family holding company that owns the PMC's non-voting shares is not under that restriction, which is why many brokers pair the two.
A fixed fee, quoted before any work starts — after a short call for a new PMC, and after I have seen the company's records for a conversion. BCFSA's licence fees and BC Registries' filing fees are passed through at cost.
Tell me whether you are starting fresh or converting a company you already have. Initial consultations are short and no-cost.
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