About Us
Celebrating over 60 Years of achievement.
From Teacher to Trusted Advisor.
Carleton “Cap” Averill, Sr., was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1936. An avid sportsman, fisherman, and football player, he grew up in Petersburg, Michigan, and attended Arthur Hill High School in Saginaw. After graduation, he went on to Central Michigan University where he graduated as an honors Chemistry student. Shortly thereafter Cap met Doris Lowe, who would become his future wife.
Following a brief stint in education as an honors Chemistry teacher, and coincident to the birth of two children, Kelly, and Cap II, Cap entered the financial planning arena in 1960. He had initiated one of the most productive careers in the history of the financial planning industry.
The Averill name is synonymous with conscientious advising, but even more so with transparency. Carleton Averill, Sr. started the “practice what you preach” approach to doing business within the Averill Agencies. He was always willing to open his own investment portfolio to show prospective clients where he had his own investments. He provided more service in the tax sheltered annuity market than any other agency in his region, and continued to be an industry leader throughout his career.
Like Father, Like Son.
Cap Averill II joined his father’s agency, Financial Advisory Clinic of Ohio, in 1981 under his father’s direction. Within a very short period of time, he received the Agency Building Award from one of the world’s largest fraternal organizations. He went on to lead that organization nationally in life insurance production. By the late 1990s, Cap was conducting estate planning seminars and overseeing a multi-state life insurance service which produced over $100 million of life insurance premium per month in several states.
But the mainstay of the Averills’ practice has been annuities. Throughout the 1980s, high interest rates supported high fixed rates of return. With the advent of fixed-indexed annuity products in the 1990s, the focus shifted to these industry leading contracts. Cap led Lincoln Financial, Midland National and Jackson National Life in fixed-indexed annuity production. He also served as a regional marketing director for ING (now Voya). Today, he continues to lead the Legacy Group, Americo, Ameritas, and many other companies in annuity production.
It must be noted, though, that production has never been the primary focus of Averill’s companies. The primary focus has been the people they serve. To signify this, Cap coined the phrase “Happy Clients Tell the Story” often used in his advertising. All of the companies led by the Averills offered clients the products considered best-in-class exactly during the time that the Averill agencies led those companies.
In 2005, Cap II began Mantis and Moon Moving Pictures and Sound to produce financial documentaries which are distributed nationally through the National Educational Television Association (NETA) and televised on public television. He produced and co-anchored the Public Television documentary Wants and Needs with Gordon Ward. He has been featured as a guest on WTOL’s THE LEADING EDGE with Jerry Anderson, WTVG’s CONKLIN and COMPANY, as well as FOX NEWS and WSPD radio. He has won various awards in the industry including international awards for his documentaries and independent films at the Hollywood International High Definition Festival, Paramount Studios Hollywood, International Wildlife Film Festival, Montana Cinefest, and Ozark Mountain Film Festival.
Cap lives with his family in Northwest Ohio. He studied at The University of Toledo, The Ohio State University, and University of California Santa Barbara. He continues to engage in educational pursuits and achievements in his field, enjoys hunting and fishing, and produces music with his band Old School.
