John Panter, M.S.

For most of his life, John’s motivation and interest has been rooted in figuring out how he can best help others.

He was first inspired by several family members who worked as rural-area physicians while John grew up in the corn belt of the Midwest. For example, his grandfather traveled from farm to farm and house to house, seeing whole families at each stop. John observed how these relatives took care of their patients one person at a time. The lessons John learned – about hard work and putting patients’ interests first – remain indelible.

In the early 1980s, John became a mental health professional. He earned a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Missouri-Columbia and began helping an eclectic population with problems and concerns ranging from depression to the most severe mental illnesses. Eventually John established his own outpatient clinic, an experience that quickly taught him hard realities that face many clinics and professionals in the medical community. His whole business became dependent upon who would pay and when, and as managed care entered the picture, he found running the practice to be untenable.

These experiences instilled in John a belief that there are two primary pain points in life – physical and financial well-being – and that caring for others was embedded in his DNA.

He opted to shift gears during the mid-1990s and provide service to others as a financial advisor. He refined skills to help people make well-educated decisions with their money.

During market downturns, John saw folks make emotional choices with their money that resulted in costly errors that threatened their financial security. This observation contributed to an “ah-ha” moment, when John realized his mental health knowledge could work in concert with his financial knowledge to impact people’s lives and futures. He realized maintaining a healthy lifestyle and taking sound preventative steps to mitigate risks were important to both physical and financial health. He began applying a new approach to his work with individuals and families, one that explores all domains of their personal finance: values, fears, family dynamics, deeply felt desires, and more. He continues to apply this process when working with clients today.