Discover our values and what's important to us
There are lots of financial services firms in the market. Most have capital, most have licenses, most have lavish premises to operate out of, however there are only some that are small, nimble and successful. Why?
Our people
At Cotton Tree Financial Services our people are the most valuable asset, so we make sure we look after them.
Having the right culture and giving our team the opportunity to thrive and build on their personal success and drive is fundamental to us.
Our vision is to deliver outstanding financial services on the Sunshine Coast for clients and their families, and we can only achieve this if our team feels supported.
Our partnership
The partnership with our people runs deep and some of our staff have been loyal to us for more than a decade. This is a mutually inclusive firm, and we treat people with respect and seek their unique differences and views. As we face difficult times in financial markets and increasing cost of living, we are determined to assist our people as much as we can.
There is no “I” in team, so no one’s interest is bigger than the overall picture of helping and assisting the entire team.
We value the suggestions and opinions of our staff. We encourage and support staff to bring ideas to the table and be actively involved in our financial service firm's overall operations.
The big picture
Management will make decisions for the long-term interest of our financial services firm and the partnership with our clients as their interests come first. We will not make decisions for short-term gains as this highlights the bigger picture of looking after clients with their best interest at the forefront for all decisions.
Just solve it
Let’s be successful, but stuff may still go wrong. It’s important in these situations our staff feel supported and reach out for help to resolve any problems that arise. How we manage problems defines who we are, our goal is to be responsible and “own” situations that occur from time to time.
It is about how we individually challenge ourselves to better help our clients making them understand our decisions and the service we are offering them. We’ll think outside the box, however we will never compromise our responsibility to act within all applicable laws and will never tolerate short cuts as we will always act with integrity in all our dealings.
Our team members are all supported to solve any problem they may face and we can rely on our experienced team to maintain our reputation in the community and around Australia.
We stay true to our expectations
We call a 'Spade a Spade'
We will be frank and honest with our clients and the team members of CTFS. We’ll tell our clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. We will always call a ‘Spade a Spade’ for the best interests of every client we are privileged to serve.
Have fun
We want to make work fun, challenging and rewarding. We have successfully operated with a culture to laugh at ourselves and not take it personally. We value our team members mental health and it’s important that all team members enjoy working for us and bring a positive attitude to work.
Speak up
If you don’t think you are being treated in accordance with our values, or if you see someone not maintaining our core values – it is everyone’s responsibility to speak up. Our clients, their families, our team members and families all depend and rely on the ongoing success of our financial services firm.
We keep our communication lines open and value compliance. If you feel that a matter needs to be addressed, please let us know and we will endeavour to resolve the issue.
How our Maroochydore financial service firm rolls
What we do and what we don’t do
Fundamentally, we treat each other and our clients as we would like to be treated ourselves; professionally and with respect.
We always work as a team.
Our team’s rewards are based on contribution and teamwork and are not constrained by bureaucracy and hierarchy.
We all don’t like the typical forced form based “annual performance review”, our process is about continual performance management.
Feedback whether positive or negative should not be a surprise, it is not personal feedback. Our business success is primarily based on “how can we do things better”. We don’t pigeonhole and provide lots of free space to develop your own self. We are not a hand holding, monitoring organisation, however we can be if we feel “things are just not right”.
If you feel our financial experts have let you down
If you believe that you have been let down in any way, we will seek to handle all employment related complaints fairly, sensitively, confidentially and as quickly as possible.
We promote a flexible and agile work environment
As long as you contribute to fulfil your job requirements (and don’t take advantage of our flexibility) our policy is to help you manage your work time with the flexibility you believe is appropriate. However, we think agility is a key to our staff wellbeing, productivity and success. A positive energy level and positive attitude goes a long way with our cultural beliefs.
We are most interested in your output and contribution to help clients foremost.
We respect and require an honest and frank approach to the challenges of balancing work and personal commitments. Taking time to attend to those commitments and being adaptive in your process and time management is paramount to our team’s personal success and the business’s success. If there are any problems, we have the experience and processes to help support you.
Our Sunshine Coast financial experts also value common sense
“It takes years to build a reputation but minutes to destroy it”.
CTFS operates in a highly regulated financial services industry which we are entrusted by our clients to deliver the highest level of service.
Staff training
So that we make sure we are all conducting business the right way, our team will be required to complete mandatory training, continuing education and certification.
Data protection and confidential information
Over the course of time with our financial services firm, you may create, receive, know of or gain access to confidential information. We require you to follow our privacy policy to ensure you protect and safeguard this information and take all reasonable steps to keep client information confidential and secure. We will not outsource outside of Australia as our information and data will be governed by Australian law and enforcement.
A breach of our data or representing yourself or the firm in another light could be a serious issue and could cause harm to our staff or clients.Any breach should be reported directly to the relevant manager.
Anti-money laundering
Money laundering involves moving money that has been gained through illegal means. At CTFS we need to be aware when dealing with new clients that we are not facilitating money laundering. If you notice anything suspicious or out of the ordinary please inform the relevant manager and report immediately with the relevant authorities
Gifts and entertainment
We do not allow the offering or receiving of gifts or entertainment in such a way that it would be considered by a reasonable person (and by this you should assume the media) as an inducement or benefit to someone for working with us or directing us to conduct business that may be considered to be conflicted advice. All advice given by our financial experts in Maroochydore is to be offered in good faith and in the best interests of our clients.
Media
There are only a handful of people in the firm that are authorised to speak to the media or organize any form of media on behalf of CTFS.
We don’t leak any information on any social platform and if anyone speaks to the media in connection with a client transaction, they would only do so if they had express prior permission from the client and CTFS management.
Regulators
The industry we operate in is complicated and is governed by a series of regulations and laws. As such we will always work to ensure an open and transparent relationship with regulators. If you are directly contacted by any regulator, you should first speak to management before releasing information.
We all manage risk
CTFS promotes a culture that ensures we manage risk in total support of our brand, our reputation and our long-term business aspirations.
Whilst we operate on tight timeframes, our people are forward looking, perceptive and vigilant when it comes to how we operate. We understand our limitations and responsibility and seek out solutions by open communication with our team to ensure our decision making is “the best it can be” with the information we have at hand.
Client complaints
We manage our client’s service expectations at the highest level. We have an obligation to our clients to return phone calls and provide timely advice and proactively manage any client dissatisfaction in an objective and considered way.
Our client complaints framework is designed to assist our clients with their complaints and address the situation quickly and fairly.
Client complaints can be minimized by a responsibility of high service protocols for each and every one of our staff. We have an obligation to conduct ourselves that is consistent with the expectations of the regulators and the firm.