Introduction
In this episode of The Mortgage Broker Podcast, hosts Dean Lawton and Jason Marshall welcome Taylor Little, CEO of Neighbourhood Holdings, for a candid and wide-ranging conversation about private lending in Canada. Taylor shares his unconventional path from practicing law at one of Canada's top firms to leading one of the country's largest mortgage investment corporations — and what he's learned along the way about building a business on discipline, relationships, and smart capital allocation.
The episode also dives deep into Neighbourhood's landmark acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management, the realities of M&A integration, and practical advice for brokers looking to grow their presence in the alternative and private lending space.
From Bike Racing to Big Law to Private Lending: Taylor Little's Unlikely Path
Taylor's story is not a conventional one. Born in Edmonton, he moved to Victoria at 18 to pursue a competitive cycling career — and ended up staying in BC for over two decades after falling in love with both the province and his future wife at UVic. After completing a master's degree in London and law school back in Edmonton, Taylor landed at Stikeman Elliott, one of Canada's premier corporate law firms, where he honed his M&A and transactional skills.
The pivot into private lending came through a friendship with Alex Conconi, whom Taylor met at a house party. Alex was building Lendesk at the time and needed legal counsel. That relationship eventually led to Taylor joining Alex's family office to help manage and grow a private lending operation that had been informally in motion since before the 2008 financial crisis.
"I loved my practice. I'm not one of these guys who left a big law firm because I hated it or was burnt out. I just thought it was exciting to look behind door number two."
In 2015, they spun the lending activity out into what became Neighbourhood Holdings — a deliberately generic name designed to keep a low profile while serving as a select group of brokers' "favourite secret." By 2018, Taylor was named CEO, and today Neighbourhood manages over $800 million in mortgage assets.
Imposter Syndrome and the Making of a Leader
Taylor is refreshingly candid about the early challenges of leading a financial business without a traditional finance background. He describes a prolonged period of imposter syndrome — the nagging feeling that as "just a lawyer," he wasn't qualified to run a lending operation.
"What I've learned is that kind of every leader feels that way. There's no manual to this. If I did a Harvard MBA, I think I'd be in the exact same spot."
What Taylor did carry into leadership was a deeply client-centric mindset from his legal career, and a clear vision for the kind of workplace culture he wanted to build — one rooted in autonomy, accountability, and trust. At Neighbourhood, the philosophy is simple: results matter, not when or how you show up. Staff are empowered to do their best work in the way that suits them, within a clear framework of team expectations.
He credits the managers and mentors who gave him room to grow — and make mistakes — as the model for his own leadership style. The people he didn't enjoy working for were the micromanagers, and that negative example was just as formative.
Neighbourhood's Conservative Lending Philosophy: Sleep-at-Night Capital
Neighbourhood's approach to lending is a direct response to lessons learned from the chaos of the 2008 financial crisis. The Conconi family office had previously made high-risk loans — bare land, motels, farms — and many of those deals didn't survive the downturn. Foreclosures, fraud, court battles, and property damage left a lasting impression on what not to do.
"We thought: why don't we just look for really great deals, sleep-at-night stuff, and we can sit on it and earn a fair rate."
The result is a lending model focused almost exclusively on residential first mortgages — houses, townhouses, and condos — at conservative loan-to-value ratios and competitive rates. Rather than reaching for yield on risky assets, Neighbourhood uses a measured amount of leverage on the portfolio to deliver strong investor returns without compromising on credit quality.
This philosophy has remained unchanged since inception and has been a key part of the firm's investor story. As Taylor puts it: they're not trying to shoot the lights out. They're compounding steadily over time.
Who Is Neighbourhood's Ideal Borrower?
Neighbourhood positions itself as a lender for "borrowers in transition" — a deceptively simple phrase that covers a wide range of real-life scenarios that the traditional banking system simply isn't built to handle.
Common transition events include:
- Bridge financing: Clients who have purchased their dream home but can't get bridge financing from their bank because the ratios don't qualify.
- Self-employed borrowers: Business owners who pay themselves a modest salary but whose companies generate significantly more income. Roughly 30% of Neighbourhood's book is made up of self-employed clients.
- Life events: The "dreaded D's" — death, disability, and divorce — that disrupt a borrower's financial picture and temporarily disqualify them from traditional financing.
A key part of the value proposition for brokers is the ability to earn two commissions while genuinely serving the client — once when placing the deal with Neighbourhood, and again when transitioning the client back to prime financing. Taylor emphasizes that mapping out a clear exit strategy often makes a short-term private mortgage a better financial outcome for the client than locking into a higher B-lender rate over five years.
"If you map out how much interest your client's going to pay, chances are you will be better off going with us into a prime loan after 9 months as opposed to locking in at a higher rate over 5 years."
The Fisgard Acquisition: Strategy, Execution, and Integration
In October 2024, Neighbourhood announced the acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management — a Victoria-based MIC with over 30 years of history and approximately $300 million in assets under management. The deal brought the combined entity to over $800 million, making it one of the largest private residential lenders in Canada.
Why Fisgard?
The acquisition was years in the making. Taylor describes an M&A thesis the team had developed as early as 2021-22, anticipating generational business turnover in the MIC space. Fisgard had actually been on Neighbourhood's radar since 2008, when Alex Conconi sent his father an email flagging the Victoria firm as one to watch.
When the opportunity emerged that Fisgard might be open to a sale, Neighbourhood moved deliberately. Taylor and Alex reached out, built the relationship through in-person meetings and a formal acquisition pitch deck, and ultimately found alignment on both valuation and vision — particularly because Fisgard's founders, Hi and Rafer Strand, cared deeply about their firm's legacy and brand.
The Strategic Synergies
Taylor is refreshingly skeptical of vague M&A "synergy" talk — and walked through the specific, concrete value drivers that made this deal compelling:
- Expanded credit box: Fisgard's willingness to do bare land, multifamily, construction, and higher LTV (up to 75%) deals gave Neighbourhood the ability to serve more of the market without changing its own fund's mandate.
- Retail investor base: Fisgard had built a base of thousands of retail investors over three decades — something Neighbourhood lacked. This opened up new capital channels and investor relationships.
- Relationship capital: Hi Strand's industry network provided immediate value in top-of-house relationship building, an area where Neighbourhood had historically relied more on digital marketing and direct sales.
- Technology and compliance infrastructure: Neighbourhood's more advanced tech and compliance capabilities could be deployed across the combined entity, improving efficiency and regulatory readiness.
The Integration Reality
Taylor is candid that integration has been hard — and that anyone who thinks the buying part is the difficult part of M&A hasn't done much of it. Merging org charts, technology systems, team cultures, and investor communication strategies took months of preparation before closing and continues to be a work in progress.
"I heard from the president of RBC after they bought HSBC: 'It took a year for the smiles to come back.' I think we're a little bit ahead of schedule."
On the broker-facing side, the integration went exceptionally well. All deals now flow through the Neighbourhood brand. An internal allocation engine determines which fund a deal is placed in based on risk, leverage, and capital availability — but this is invisible to brokers. Pricing, underwriting standards, and servicing remain consistent regardless of which fund backs the deal.
On the investor side, Fisgard's strong brand recognition has been preserved. The exempt market dealer and retail investor side of the business continues to operate under the Fisgard name, recognizing that those long-standing relationships were built on trust in the Strand family's stewardship.
AI, Automation, and the Irreplaceable Human Connection
Neighbourhood has invested significantly in technology — including hiring a new CTO as part of the Fisgard deal and doubling the size of its tech team. The firm has built out extensive human-centered automation on the underwriting side, enabling faster decision-making and reducing manual, error-prone tasks.
But Taylor is emphatic: technology is an enabler, not a replacement for human judgment or relationships.
"We've not laid a single person off because of tech improvements. It just gives our underwriters more time to review the deal holistically — and to call the broker."
In fact, one of Neighbourhood's top-performing underwriters by closing rate has a simple process: he calls the broker on every file to say the deal looks good. That human touch point — that brief moment of connection — has a measurable impact on conversion. It's a lesson Taylor applies broadly: the firms and professionals who will win long-term are those who use technology to free up time for relationships, not to replace them.
Taylor illustrated this point with a compelling analogy from outside the mortgage world. Neighbourhood owns an interest in Beachy, one of Canada's leading online bike retailers. When they opened a physical location in Victoria, online sales in that city jumped 250% — not because of any change in advertising, but because customers trusted the brand more when they knew there was a door they could walk through. Brick and mortar builds trust. Presence matters.
The Future of Alternative and Private Lending in Canada
Taylor sees the alternative lending space continuing to institutionalize — and views this as a long-term tailwind for well-capitalized, compliance-ready organizations like Neighbourhood.
Key trends he's watching:
- Consolidation: Smaller MICs operating on thin margins are increasingly unable to absorb the cost of regulatory compliance, particularly as rules like FINTRAC requirements intensify. Taylor sees many of these operators eventually selling or winding down.
- Pricing compression: The space has become highly competitive, and spreads have narrowed significantly. Taylor believes the industry is approaching a floor — below which investors will simply opt for GICs or other alternatives rather than accept inadequate risk-adjusted returns from mortgage funds.
- Compliance as competitive advantage: Neighbourhood has built a full-time AML function, dedicated compliance staff, and a workflow that separates AML review from underwriting. This infrastructure is a meaningful moat against smaller operators who cannot afford to build it.
- No imminent US invasion: Taylor is skeptical that large US funds will enter the Canadian residential mortgage space in a meaningful way, given the relatively compressed spreads compared to high-yield bond alternatives available south of the border.
Advice for Brokers: How to Win in the Alt and Private Space
Taylor's advice for brokers looking to do more business in the alternative and private lending space is straightforward and actionable:
- Get more clients — more clients naturally means more alt deals.
- Compete on service and advice, not rate — brokers who differentiate on expertise and education will build lasting loyalty; those competing on rate alone will struggle.
- Think beyond B lenders — many brokers default to B lenders for non-prime clients without considering whether a short-term private mortgage with a clear exit strategy might be a better outcome for the borrower.
- Map the cost scenarios — sit down with clients and walk through the full financial picture: rate, payment, exit cost, timing, and total interest paid across different paths. The math often favours a private solution followed by a prime refinance.
- Be the client's concierge — alternative lending is not a self-serve market. Clients need a broker to explain why they're in this product, how they'll get out, and what the plan looks like. Brokers who invest in that relationship will earn referrals and loyalty that compound over time.
- Use your BDMs — Taylor praised the quality of Neighbourhood's sales team and echoed Dean's observation that brokers often underutilize BDMs as the educational and coaching resource they're designed to be.
"If you can compete on service and advice, you're probably going to win. We view ourselves as just an added tool in the toolbox."
Key Takeaways
- Neighbourhood Holdings was built on a philosophy of conservative, sleep-at-night lending — low LTV, residential first mortgages at competitive rates — informed by painful lessons from the 2008 financial crisis.
- The acquisition of Fisgard Asset Management expanded Neighbourhood's credit box, retail investor base, and market reach, making it one of Canada's largest private residential lenders at over $800 million AUM.
- M&A integration is harder than the acquisition itself. Success requires months of advance planning, clear communication, and a relentless focus on not disrupting client-facing operations during the transition.
- Technology and automation are powerful tools, but the firms that will win long-term are those that use them to enhance human relationships — not replace them.
- The MIC space is consolidating. Smaller operators without the scale to absorb compliance costs are increasingly unviable, and well-capitalized, institutionally-run lenders are positioned to capture that market share.
- Brokers who can educate clients on private lending as a strategic, time-limited tool — with a clear exit plan — will differentiate themselves, earn repeat business, and deliver genuinely better outcomes for borrowers.
Why You Should Listen
Whether you're a broker who has never submitted a deal to a private lender, or a seasoned alternative lending specialist, this episode is packed with practical insight. Taylor Little brings a rare combination of legal precision, entrepreneurial thinking, and hard-won operational experience to one of the most nuanced corners of the Canadian mortgage market. His candid take on M&A, AI, compliance, market consolidation, and the enduring power of human relationships makes this one of the most substantive conversations The Mortgage Broker Podcast has produced.
If you want to understand where the private lending space is heading — and how to position your brokerage to capitalize on it — this episode is essential listening.
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