diff --git a/openjpa-kernel/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/conf/OpenJPAConfigurationImpl.java b/openjpa-kernel/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/conf/OpenJPAConfigurationImpl.java
index 0adcd4546..edbee2b6d 100644
--- a/openjpa-kernel/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/conf/OpenJPAConfigurationImpl.java
+++ b/openjpa-kernel/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/conf/OpenJPAConfigurationImpl.java
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ public class OpenJPAConfigurationImpl
 
     // openjpa properties
     public ObjectValue classResolverPlugin;
-    public BrokerValue brokerPlugin;
+    public ObjectValue brokerPlugin;
     public ObjectValue dataCachePlugin;
     public ObjectValue dataCacheManagerPlugin;
     public IntValue dataCacheTimeout;
diff --git a/openjpa-persistence/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/persistence/PersistenceProviderImpl.java b/openjpa-persistence/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/persistence/PersistenceProviderImpl.java
index ccca49230..a0fa1032f 100644
--- a/openjpa-persistence/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/persistence/PersistenceProviderImpl.java
+++ b/openjpa-persistence/src/main/java/org/apache/openjpa/persistence/PersistenceProviderImpl.java
@@ -83,15 +83,6 @@ public class PersistenceProviderImpl
         PersistenceUnitInfo pui, Map m) {
         PersistenceProductDerivation pd = new PersistenceProductDerivation();
         try {
-            // if the BrokerImpl hasn't been specified, switch to the
-            // non-finalizing one, since anything claiming to be a container
-            // should be doing proper resource management.
-            if (!Configurations.containsProperty(BrokerValue.KEY,
-                pui.getProperties())
-                && !Configurations.containsProperty(BrokerValue.KEY, m)) {
-                m.put(BrokerValue.KEY, BrokerValue.NON_FINALIZING_ALIAS);
-            }
-
             ConfigurationProvider cp = pd.load(pui, m);
             if (cp == null)
                 return null;
@@ -102,6 +93,15 @@ public class PersistenceProviderImpl
             pui.addTransformer(new ClassTransformerImpl(cp, ctOpts, 
                 pui.getNewTempClassLoader()));
 
+            // if the BrokerImpl hasn't been specified, switch to the
+            // non-finalizing one, since anything claiming to be a container
+            // should be doing proper resource management.
+            if (!Configurations.containsProperty(BrokerValue.KEY,
+                cp.getProperties())) {
+                cp.addProperty("openjpa." + BrokerValue.KEY, 
+                    BrokerValue.NON_FINALIZING_ALIAS);
+            }
+
             BrokerFactory factory = Bootstrap.newBrokerFactory(cp, 
                 pui.getClassLoader());
             return OpenJPAPersistence.toEntityManagerFactory(factory);