The velocity of money — with Stefun Darts

While his teenage peers were partying and having fun, Stefun Darts was quietly working toward fulfilling a promise he made to his grandparents, who raised him.

In 2016, at the age of 24, Darts fulfilled his promise by presenting his grandparents with a check to pay off their mortgage and to fund a trip to The Bahamas in celebration.

It took him six years to accumulate the $15,000 needed to make good on the promise he made to himself to pay for his grandparents’ home in gratitude for the sacrifices they made throughout his life.

“God put me with my grandparents because my mom wasn’t able to give me what I needed,” Darts said. “As I got older, I was able to be thankful for what my grandparents did for me, as well as understand my mom. Now I plan to buy my mom a house by the end of the year.”

Darts is the founder and president of Blackstone Wealth Partners in Houston, Texas, where his mission is “to demystify wealth-building and make financial freedom simple and accessible.” He focuses on families and business owners to improve cash flow and reduce debt and said his client base is 100% referral-based. A top performer with Pan-American Life, Darts has the goal of serving 1,000 clients.

Making the news

When Darts paid off his grandparents’ house, the story of how he fulfilled a promise made when he was in the second grade hit local and national news, ending up as a feature on NBC’s “Today.”

At the time, he was working as a loan officer and was at the point in life where he was beginning to make some money. But his life was about to take a different direction, thanks to comedian and TV personality Steve Harvey.

The story of how Darts bought his grandparents a house came to Harvey’s attention, and the actor invited Darts to appear on his TV talk show. Darts received a scholarship from the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation, which he used to attend Savannah College of Art and Design. After graduating from SCAD with a degree in fashion marketing and management, he worked with Harvey’s mentorship camp, where he advised teenage boys in need of male role models.

Harvey has a connection to the insurance world. He worked as a debit insurance salesman early in his life before quitting at age 27 to pursue comedy, and he later said that cash-value life insurance was among his smartest investments.

The power to transform lives

Through Darts’ contact with Harvey, he became aware that life insurance has the power to transform people’s lives, and he set out on a new path.

“He showed me what life insurance can do,” Darts said. “It can do some impactful things to help people.”

Darts said his new goal was to help people build long-term wealth through life insurance. He recalled something his grandmother told him: “Send that elevator back down. Other people may not get to be in those rooms that you are in, so it’s important that you send the elevator back down. Go back and impact those who don’t have the information you have.”

He said he works mostly with middle-
income households, helping them develop financial discipline and work toward future goals.

“A lot of my clients come to me for budget financing,” he said. “Many people in this business push products; I just give value and people see the value. People want to have their money working for them, so we design a plan to have that money working for them in multiple places.”

Darts said his job is “to flip that switch that says you need to own a lot of stuff to be successful.

“We educate people and provide them with plans that work so they can be financially secure and avoid a crash — whether it’s from a down market, a health crisis or anything else that might come up.”

Referrals, not social media

Darts said his clients come to him through referrals and that he does not do any social media marketing.

“I always say that if you just show up for people, the people will come,” he said. “If you give people value, they’re going to refer you all day long. We want to serve the people and give them the knowledge that most people don’t know.”

Darts said he first started networking through mastermind groups and then other communities opened up to him. From there, the clients followed.

He has a goal of “changing the industry, by showing people the velocity of money.”

Darts said he begins by helping clients get out of debt and then building a wealth plan. “After people see their money working for them, they see their life changing,” he said.

Reaching 1,000 clients

His goal of eventually serving 1,000 clients is only a starting point, he said. 

“I want to help people get back control of their money so that their families are taken care of and so they can retire instead of working extra years. So they don’t have to worry about a downturn in the market, because they have control of their money” he said. “My goal is to reach 1,000 people. But it could be 100,000 people. We’re just steadily knocking out our goals of what God wants us to do, and so that way we can serve our community and show up.”

Faith plays an important role in Darts’ life.

“At the end of the day, I’m not here just for me,” he said. “Once you understand that, you understand the gravity that comes with it. Because God wouldn’t put so many people’s lives in my hands if I didn’t understand the impact. So that’s how I make my decisions. He tells me what to do and I do it. I have to be faithful.”

Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at susan.rupe@innfeedback.com.