Since he was old enough to work, Justin Hamilton has been focused on insurance, often working more than one job at the same time.

When he was in high school, Hamilton worked in the mailroom at Financial Horizons Group, a managing general agency. During university he also held a job working as a Financial Horizons compensation specialist. Later on he worked at the company’s head office as a business development consultant, while also developing his own practice – one he purchased in 2010, shortly after obtaining his Certified Financial Planning (CFP) designation in 2009.

In 2014 Hamilton became a national training specialist, before being promoted to director of education where he was responsible for advisor training and back office implementation when the company switched systems in 2015.

Hamilton’s interest in succession planning for advisors began in 2010 when he and his brother Chris purchased their book of business from a broker’s estate to form C&J Hamilton Financial Services Inc. That interest came full circle when he sold his practice and joined Kitchener-based Continuum Financial Centres as national director of sales in January 2017. The relatively new succession planning division of Financial Horizons Group is devoted to helping existing brokers buy and sell blocks of business. In his second role as Continuum’s operations manager, he also implemented a new broker training system, helped to design the company’s new compensation package and facilitated a number of broker acquisitions for the company.

“Obtaining my CFP at a young age was certainly a huge achievement for me. It confirmed that I was in the right profession,” he says. “Being able to start, grow and eventually sell my practice alongside my brother was also a great accomplishment for both of us.”

Going forward, Hamilton has his sights focused squarely on the Continuum brand. “I would like to be a key part in growing Continuum into the leading succession planning and new advisor program in the industry,” he says.

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