Mortgage Choice brokers arranged about 40,000 customer loans in the year to June and about 4000 of those customers were referred to a Mortgage Choice financial planner.The proportion of broker customer referrals was up 21 per cent on the previous year but Mortgage Choice chief executive John Flavell said it was the tip of the iceberg.The company has 417 mortgage broker franchises - down from 422 a year earlier. It has 36 financial planning franchises - up from 34 at the end of last year.Flavell said the "build" phase of the financial planning business, launched four years ago, was complete and big investments in the business would no longer be required.Financial planning is yet to make a profit for the company. It lost $626,000 in 2014/15 and $300,000 in the year to June.The mortgage broking division increased its net profit from $19.9 million to $21.3 million over the same period.Overall, the company reported a net profit of $19.5 million - up 3.6 per cent on the previous year. After adjusting for the accounting treatment of trail commissions, cash profit increased 10.7 per cent to $20.5 million.The core business suffered a couple of setbacks, with a reduction in the number of franchises and a loss of market share. Mortgage Choice started the financial year with 422 franchises, terminated 12, suspended four and recruited 11 to finish the year with 417.Flavell said: "In any healthy network when expectations are not met you need to manage that."He said 32 established franchises changed hands during the year, which brought new energy to the business.The Mortgage Choice loan book grew 4.4 per cent to $51.7 billion, compared with system growth of 6.7 per cent for the year to June.Flavell said there were good signs for the business, with settlements growing at 6.3 per cent - ahead of the industry average.Average loan life fell from four years to 3.9 years. Back in 2011 average loan life was five years. Mortgage Choice chief financial officer Susan Mitchell said falling interest rates encouraged borrowers to refinance and to make extra repayments on their loans, both of which shortened loan life.Mitchell said that trend was likely to continue.