Jo Anne Paynter

JoAnne Paynter







Jo Anne Paynter, CFP®

Like many ACP members, Jo Anne is a career changer with a diverse background. In a previous life she worked for the CIA as a manager for security--yes, that CIA. Her husband, Frank, also worked for the agency, and after many stress-filled years they decided to leave Washington D.C. to lead simpler and more enjoyable lives. They landed in the Columbus, Ohio area where Jo Anne decided to become a financial planner and Frank returned to school to get his Masters degree.

Jo Anne mostly self-studied the CFP® coursework through the College of Financial Planning and passed the exam in 1995. Knowing that she wanted her own practice, Jo Anne began researching the steps involved in starting a practice. She read an article in a financial planning magazine about Bert Whitehead who was starting a new system to train planners to launch and run a successful practice. So, with a bottle of well-aged brandy in hand, Jo Anne headed north to Michigan to visit Bert. After spending several days with him, where she sat in on client appointments, she was sold on the ACP System™.

Jo Anne became an ACP member in 1996 and attended one of the first training classes. She credits the Visiting Advisor program as a huge help in getting her practice off the ground. Jo Anne spent a full week visiting the practices of Bert, Christine Isham, and David Lentz. Another major advantage was the support she received from fellow ACP members in the Columbus area, namely Jill Gianola and Betsy Caldwell. This group supported one another, commiserated, and shared ideas as they were all starting their practices at the same time.

Jo Anne is a big believer in ACP and has served in various capacities to improve the organization. She is a past president of the ACP Board of Directors and serves on various PATs, including Directed Portfolio, Core Tools, and a newer PAT to help document the ACP core principles. Jo Anne has also collaborated on several calculators utilized by ACP. She opens her doors to newer members for the Visiting Advisor program and is willing to help any ACP member at a moment's notice.

Admittedly, Jo Anne is a bit of a software junkie. She has used all of the retirement planning software packages imaginable, and one of her favorites is the BOTE Retirement Analyzer. She learned that many clients do not connect with highly detailed and complicated reports and prefer an easy to understand format to view their financial situation.

It seems that every time Jo Anne strayed from the core philosophy of ACP, her practice moved off track. She embraces fully the ACP System™ and philosophy for advising clients, and she utilizes many of the core tools every day.

Jo Anne has built a practice that is not only successful but fulfilling. She counts all her clients as friends, and it's common for Jo Anne and Frank ("the corporate pilot") to fly the company plane to different parts of the country to visit and work with clients.

Her practice had been closed to new clients for several years when she began thinking of succession planning. As luck would have it, a new ACP member in Columbus had just come out of the January 2008 training class. She brought this new planner on board as a partner. The transition for Jo Anne and her new partner has been effective and efficient.

In 2003 Jo Anne and Frank built their dream house just southwest of Columbus, about a stone's throw from the airport where they keep their plane. Her house is very unique - it is built underground and backs up to a wooded area. For fun she enjoys riding her new horse, singing, spending time with her grandchildren, and obsessing over New York Times crossword puzzles with Frank.