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Sam Collins, former head of wealth management at Toronto-based Echelon Wealth Partners, has been named the new CEO and president of Creation Wealth Capital Inc., a new firm awaiting regulator approval to create a retail and institutional brokerage.

On May 3, IIROC announced that Toronto-based based electronic trading firm Electronic Transaction Clearing Canada Inc. would be changing its name to Creation Wealth Capital, also based in Toronto.

Collins and an ownership group in the U.S — a numbered company in the process of changing its name to Creation Investment Group — purchased ETC Canada and replaced the entire management team.

Despite registering with IIROC in 2014, ETC Canada has never officially launched, Collins adds.

Creation Wealth Capital will differ from the electronic trading company by turning into more of a traditional wealth management business, he says.

The firm’s first step is to obtain approval by IIROC to add new lines of business. Second, the firm is looking to add investment advisors to its platform and, third, the firm will build a capital markets team with a strong focus on alternative products.

“We really feel like there is a lack of good quality alternative products up here in Canada. And that’s going to be our focus point,” Collins says.

“We have a very fresh approach,” he adds. “We’re going to use a lot of technology and we’re in the process of developing a digital platform.”

The firm’s target market will be millennials and Generation X.

“In the next five to ten years there is going to be a huge transfer of wealth [from the baby boomers] so we are gearing ourselves up to capture our share of that business,” Collins says.

“We’re going to be a very cutting edge business, quite different from what other wealth management shops are looking like in Canada right now.”

Collins expects the firm to be fully operational by the end of July.