M. Brooks Clark—Founder, Clark Financial Advisors

Different paths take us to different destinations. Often, the paths we least expect to travel take us to great rewards.

As a youth, M. Brooks Clark found the going easy, yet the paths he traveled didn't seem to lead to any particular destination. When the U.S. Army drafted him, he took an unexpected journey—and discovered a clear path in life.

Looking back, Brooks views the military experience as fundamental to his life. He learned lessons of leadership, integrity, and service. He walked a path of achievement. He worked and lived with destination, and became a highly regarded—and highly successful—investment advisor.

As a financial planner, Brooks found that helping his clients manage their personal finances and plan their investments to maximize their financial security was a job that he found personally fulfilling. He saw the results that a lack of financial planning can have when a personal friend suffered the unexpected and shocking loss of her young husband. This young couple was starting a family and building her husband’s medical practice, and the last thing they expected was his sudden death. The consequence was that wife and their children were faced with a financial crisis as well as the devastating emotional loss.

As a result of this event, Brooks became even more convinced of the need to help people with their portfolio management, retirement, and estate planning. Investing his client’s assets for their maximum benefit has become the driving force in Brooks’ professional life and the goal of Clark Financial Advisors.

Before founding Clark Financial Advisors, Brooks was a commercial banker with a specialty in mergers and acquisitions. In 1983, he left Bradford National of New York to return to his childhood home and establish the financial planning firm. With degrees in economics from Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville and graduate degrees in banking from the University of Virginia and the University of Oklahoma, Brooks’ entire career has been based in finance. This experience and education make Brooks a uniquely qualified investment advisor.