Home loan broker Mortgage Choice will launch a wealth management business next year. The group is following a path already taken by Aussie and Yellow Brick Road in trying to combine loan broking with the sale of superannuation and other investment products.Mortgage Choice chief executive Michael Russell said he hoped to have the new business up and running in the first quarter of next year. Few details have been provided but it is likely that the group will establish a separate franchise network and have loan brokers and financial planners working in close co-operation, rather than try to train loan brokers to sell investment products.Broking businesses are being driven to diversify by the weak growth in residential mortgage and business lending. Licensing requirements under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act have brought the operations of loan brokers closer to those of financial planners, and this has encouraged groups like Mortgage Choice to believe they can operate in both markets.When the company announced its 2010/11 results in August, Russell said: "We are light on in diversified income. We need to be doing more commercial lending. We are training our franchisees to do more investment lending."We are looking at reverse mortgages. There is a need for that type of finance, and now that the Government has set some guidelines there is more certainty. This year there will be a big focus on diversifying our sources of income."Yellow Brick Road branches currently offer term deposits, home and contents insurance, mortgages and other loans through a variety of third-party agreements.In September, the company gave an investor presentation at which it outlined stage two of its development - the introduction of an "advice model". This involves the sale of life insurance, a cash fund, commercial loans and a bigger selection of general insurance products.By the middle of 2012 the group expects to have a simple superannuation product and model investment portfolios on offer. Ultimately, Yellow Brick Road advisers will offer a full financial planning service, self-managed super fund administration, tax planning and business accounting.