BARBARA CLARK STEVENSON – Co-owner, American Financial Security, LLC and American Financial Investments, LLC
Everything Barbara is comes from her parents, her grandmas, her swim coach – all the talented people who took an interest in her and helped along the way, and Ross Perot.
Srong Midwest values rooted in family, hard work, education and church as well as good public schools and years of both competitive swimming and golf taught Barbara Clark Stevenson that she needed to work for what she wanted – that effort does not guarantee results, and it’s results that count.
Right out of college, with training in secondary education, performing arts, Renaissance Lit and Speech Pathology, she became a Realtor®, then a broker, and then co-authored the first accredited education for Realtors® in her state. At 25, she moved to Colorado, and was hired into a more than 14-year career with EDS of continuous learning. She worked hard from the “center of the values circle,” where results were measured and rewarded. Clark Stevenson also served in the commercial insurance industry (earning a Fellow of the Life Management Institute certification, or FLMI) and worked in worldwide manufacturing, where she was responsible for corporate communications for the General Motors account.
Clark Stevenson is a graduate of MIT’s yearlong executive leadership program, The Leadership Lab. In 1994, she was wooed away by Oracle to help transform the company culture from sales-driven to one focused on service and relationships. By this time, she knew startups were where she excelled. On her first day, Clark Stevenson was asked to take a different, “temporary” assignment to lead the company’s fledgling management consulting practice. Over the next three years, she worked in 13 different countries building small consulting hubs.
Clark Stevenson retired from corporate life and constant travel in 1999 and took two years to step back, remodel her dream home, play competitive golf and build a circle of friends locally. She got the horses she always wanted and spent time with the aging dog – Sir Alex – whom she adored. Upon deciding that Prescott was where she wanted to be, she brought her horses to her little ranch, got a new puppy, Ranger, and remodeled again – out in this beautiful nature. She loved the quiet and found she truly needed it to recharge. But, she also found she needed to get her brain working again. Clark Stevenson looked for a way to apply her knowledge, skills and experience at a more personal and individual level, so she returned to something she had done before for herself, and became certified to complete taxes, both personal and later corporate returns.
Over the following 10 years, she built a loyal clientele within a local franchise of H & R Block. She was selected to represent franchise needs at the corporate executive level and served on their prestigious President’s Field Tax Advisory Council for several years. Today, Clark Stevenson is co-owner, with her husband, of two firms in Prescott specializing in retirement planning, investments and strategic tax preparation. They published their book, Pillars of Retirement Income, host a weekly radio show, “Financially Tuned with Ron and Barbara,” now on KQNA, contribute a monthly educational article in the Quad City News and have hosted over 50 seminars to help educate people about different aspects of retirement, investments and tax impact. Clark Stevenson is proud of the dedicated and talented professionals on her team, and what they accomplish every day.
“You see, at our companies we serve with our knowledge, skills, integrity and ethics,” she said. “At AFS it’s all about the relationship — and results.”
