Anthony C. Epps: From Early Roots In Lincolnsville, He Grew His Business In P-Town

By Leonard E. Colvin
Special to the New Journal and Guide

During  their tenure in the nation’s workforce, regardless of their careers, American workers accrue wealth they must increase and assets to protect.

People who make  a living advising individuals and families on how to  invest, insure, and expand that wealth and protect those assets are an important professional class, especially those who have a resume of 50 years or more.

Such is the case of Anthony C. Epps, the  owner, CEO, and President of APEX Financial Group, Inc.

Epps provides an array of services, he said, from insurance, Annuities, Disability Income, Estate and  Retirement Planning, and  helping families pay for their offspring’s college career.

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During a  recent interview with GUIDE, Epps, now 75, talked about his half-century-long journey to being a respected and productive member among his brethren of  Financial Service Advisors.

Several decades ago, he became a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Roundtable of Professional insurance salesmen and financial advisors. To qualify, members of this unique fraternity had to accrue a steady,  yearly six-figure level of  earnings from their clientele.  He has also obtained the Life Insurance Underwriting Training Council Fellowship, among other accolades.

Apex Financial Group of Virginia, Inc. operates from a modest headquarters in downtown Portsmouth, Epps’ hometown on Crawford Street.

As  the  chief “salesman” and financial advisor, Epps has a small team of administrative and outreach personnel, including his long-time business partner, Michael Gray, who is the firm’s Marketing Director and a fellow P-Town native.

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Both are Norfolk State University (NSU) graduates and  have been  featured  in the school’s  “Philanthropy Report,”  highlighting their careers and support for their Alma mater.

The duo has stayed connected to NSU by participating in several on-campus fundraising events. Apex Financial Group of Virginia, Inc., also conducted a planned giving seminar at NSU. The workshop was offered to alumni and faculty.

Every strong and productive house of entrepreneurship was built on a solid foundation.

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For Epps, it all began in the Lincolnsville community of Portsmouth. It was razed to make way for  redevelopment in the 50s.  The predominantly Black and working-class enclave once stood blocks away from the building where Epps’ firm sits.

There, the foundation for his personal and professional growth was first laid.

To give tribute to their contributions to laying that foundation, Epps launched the  Robert L. Epps Sr. and Blanche A. Epps Endowed Scholarship Fund, which  provides scholarships and financial support to sociology majors and student-athletes.

Epps recalls the one-bedroom house in Lincolnsville, which he shared with his parents and seven siblings. The family later moved to a four-bedroom unit in the Ida Barbour public housing community in 1952, where he recalled that his family thought  “we had more room” and a peek at heaven.

Robert L. Epps, Sr. worked as a laborer at the Shipyard, the now defunct Halls Bakery, and other side gigs to feed his big family.

Blanche Epps was primarily a housewife who managed running the nest and raising  six girls and two boys. She also worked for a local jeweler, selling adornments among other jobs to bring in extra income.

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Determined and proud of her desire to work to support her husband and family,  her motto “I came in looking, and I will leave looking” for employment which suited her personally,  resonated with her son as his life  and career evolved.

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At I.C. Norcom High School, Epps recalls he “was one of many students the teachers did think were college material because I was not on the honor roll.”

When Epps graduated from high school in 1968,  he needed employment and got a job at  the Shipyard, where he worked forming sheet metal.

But he said he quickly realized he did not fancy manual labor and, despite his Norcom teachers’ view of academic potential, enrolled at Norfolk State University (NSU).

Math was his strongest course in high school, and he considered History before he settled on Sociology as a major.

  He discovered that “the subject allowed me to deal with human behavioral patterns” as his career in financial services advanced.

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After graduating from NSU, he briefly taught homebound students for Portsmouth Public Schools (PPS).

Then he landed a job with the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority (PRHA) as a Housing Manager in the Ida Barbour Public Housing community for two years before he was laid off in 1976.

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This was the same time when the 25-year-old married  and promised his newly minted bride, Zana, she would be secure.

So, he scanned the yellow pages and secured employment with the AETNA Insurance Company. Over time he  discovered  that he could make more money selling insurance than shaping sheet metal,  teaching, or being a public housing manager.

By 1983, he was inducted into the “Million Dollar Roundtable,” a unique fraternity of high-earning and productive financial service professionals.

He discovered that few of them were men or women who looked like him.

At one point, Epps said he took a brief detour into selling cars as well as insurance. But  various factors caused him to focus on  financial services and setting up his own business.

By 1986, he left  AETNA and began working in partnership with Tom Campbell, out of a  small office  on York Street  and then Colonial Avenue in Norfolk  under the banner “Apex Financial Group, LLC.”

By then, Mr. Gray, who is also a preacher,  and Epps joined forces, too.

At one point, Campbell exited the scene.

The company’s name changed to  “Apex Financial Group Inc.”  before Epps, Gray, and  several careerists  formed, in 1994, the short-lived partnership  of Virginia Insurance Black Professionals (VIBP).

After that brief collaboration, the house of Apex Financial Group of Virginia, Inc. was born.

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It  has remained strong due to Epps’s passion to be a strong,  reliable, independent, and productive force and the leader of a minority-owned financial services business in this region.

He  keeps abreast of the latest trends in the field; this is why, after traveling to a forum in San Francisco some years ago, he was inspired to migrate from being a seller of financial services to  being an advisor   to help people who have secured wealth to protect  it.

Epps said he keeps the roof of the  house of his  enterprise  from leaking under the stresses of  economic downturns , “by having a strong faith in God, first.”

He said he is also a good manager of people, money, and time, “and having strong understanding  and support from my wife.”

Leonard E. Colvin is the Chief Reporter Emeritus of the New Journal and Guide.