The financial sector handily outperformed the broader market in 2012, and it's off to a great start to 2013 as well. As companies continue to try to push past crisis-era and legal troubles, some financial stocks have popped and made patient investors big winners.

In this video, Motley Fool banking analysts David Hanson and Matt Koppenheffer tell investors which three financial stocks soared earlier this week and how they  into a long-term strategy.