We have the credentials and experience to help you in all aspects of financial planning. We are committed to our family of clients the way our clients are to theirs.

As sister and brother, we have worked together professionally for over 20 years. We have FAM as an acronym for our business name because we truly believe in family as key to our work. As you can imagine, we were both excited when JoAnn's son, Ty, decided to join the firm in 2017.

We hold credentials as both Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS (CFP^®). As CPA and CFP^® credential holders, we are well positioned to help clients address their financial planning needs in an unbiased and knowledgeable manner.

JoAnn May, CPA/PFS, MBA, CFP®

Financial Planner

JoAnn May, CPA/PFS, MBA, CFP®

JoAnn is the principal and co-founder of Forest Asset Management. She is a frequent contributor to CNBC’s Investing & Personal Finance section and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Fortune.

JoAnn specializes in holistic financial planning, with an emphasis on retirement/IRA planning and utilizing tax-efficient investment strategies. She provides these services with a focus on how financial decisions play an integral part in her clients overall financial health. After all, financial and physical wellbeing are related, and money stress can manifest its way into physical ailments.

Prior to founding Forest Asset Management, JoAnn started her career as a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG followed by a management position at Trans Union. After years in the corporate accounting environment, JoAnn moved on to personal finance, specializing in tax-related issues at the firm Pesavento & Pesavento LTD, which is where she grew her passion for financial planning. In 2006, JoAnn and her partner and brother, Mark Pesavento, started Forest Asset Management, to provide more in-depth financial services to their clients.

JoAnn is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and has an MBA in Finance from DePaul University.

Her professional affiliations include the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), Illinois CPA Society, and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). She is a Master Elite Advisor with the Ed Slott Advisor Group, an organization of financial advisors dedicated to being leaders in the IRA and retirement industry.

JoAnn’s hobbies and interests revolve around the great outdoors including pickleball, hiking, biking, and kayaking on local rivers.

JoAnn and her husband Peter met in college and have been married since 1988. Peter is now retired, but still works as a consultant for his nuts-and-bolts fastener business south of Chicago. Peter and JoAnn instilled a love for travel and learning about new cultures in their children, and they continue traveling together across the globe as a family.

Their son, Tyler, is a Miami University’s Farmer School of Business graduate and works with JoAnn as a Wealth Advisor at Forest Asset Management.

Their daughter, Julia, received her undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary and her Doctor of Medicine at University of Illinois in Chicago. Julia is now a resident at Rush Medical Center specializing in Dermatology. Outside of her busy schedule, she enjoys running on the lakefront and volunteering at clinics and events around the city.

JoAnn and Peter will be welcoming two new family members in the future as both Julia and Ty recently got engaged. Fun times ahead!

Favorites

Book: This is a hard one as I love to read both fiction and non-fiction. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer and The River of Doubt by Candice Millard will not disappoint!
Movie: I love a good rom com and Love Actually is the first that comes to mind. Great soundtrack too.
Band: I love the old rockers, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Elton John, Paul McCartney. I try to see them when they come in concert as we don’t know how long we will have them.
Type of Food: I love Thai, French Bistro. Anything with lots of flavor and vegetables.
Pizza Style: Very thin, of course!
Quote: Ernest Hemingway on being resilient and resourceful: “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” Source: The Old Man and the Sea
Travel destination: Italy holds a special place in my heart.
Hobbies/favorite activities: Currently it is biking and pickle ball.
Childhood Memory: Saturday morning jam sessions at 4511 (the home I grew up in) cleaning the house with my siblings and listening to 70s rock ‘n’ roll.
Person in History: Theodore Roosevelt for his vison and passion with the National Parks.

Mark S. Pesavento, CPA/PFS, MST, CFP®

With more than 40 years of experience, Mark concentrates his expertise in tax and business consulting. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP®) since 1978, Mark has been coaching people on comprehensive financial planning and wealth management throughout his entire career.

Mark and his wife Elaine started a CPA tax and accounting firm in 1976 before they merged and sold their ownership after 40 years. In 2006, Mark united with his sister, JoAnn, to build FAM into a firm that closes the gap in clients’ wealth management needs. Together, they focus on providing clients with the professional guidance and evidence-based investment solutions that help them achieve their goals.

Mark’s personal approach to wealth management is to always treat people like family, and he is grateful to consider many clients his close personal friends. It is especially rewarding to Mark when he is able to serve the children and grandchildren of his longest-standing clients.

He has three sons - Jim, Bob and Andy. Jim, and his partner Caitlin, live in Bay Area of California. Jim has a son with another child on the way! He has a Ph.D. in biophysics and teaches at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga. Bob and his wife, Dorothy, have a daughter and live in Geneva, Switzerland. They both hold MBA and CPA designations and work at large international corporations. They can be found in the winter skiing on the slopes of the Alps with the Matterhorn as an impressive backdrop. Andy and his wife, Maureen, have one daughter and live in Denver, Colorado. Andy works in IT for the University of Colorado. He and his wife are often hiking the Rocky Mountains in their spare time on weekends.

Mark enjoys golfing, fishing, reading, traveling, and spending time outdoors at the family cottage in Fish Lake, Indiana. He also looks forward to every opportunity to spend time with his grandchildren.

Tyler C. May

Associate Wealth Advisor

Tyler C. May

Associate Wealth Advisor

Around the office, we refer to Tyler as "Chief Problem-Solver". He wears many different hats at our firm. Besides servicing FAM's current clients, Tyler is head of firm operations, which includes: educating and onboarding new clients, monitoring account transfers and money movement, client reporting, and administering new technology platforms. In addition to this, he works closely with our summer interns, and ensures they are learning and progressing.

Tyler is the main advisor and point person for many of our business clients' retirement plans. Tyler's individual clients are young-professionals in various industries, but primarily have careers in medicine, technology, and large corporations. Since Tyler is similar in age, he draws on personal experience when educating and communicating financial planning strategies to his clients. Tyler is experienced and knowledgeable in tax-efficient investing, debt management / student-loan planning, employee benefits and compensation, saving for children's college costs, and retirement planning. Tyler preaches that important financial decisions early in life can manifest beneficial future results.

Tyler was a student-athlete at Miami University and graduated from Miami's Farmer School of Business. At Miami, he majored in Finance, minored in Chinese, and earned a China Business Certificate. Outside of the classroom, he played collegiate Division 1 roller hockey winning a Regional Championship and earning individual accolades. Prior to joining FAM, he spent three years as a financial analyst at Conagra Brands. Tyler’s skills, network, and experiences working for a Fortune 500 company are integral to FAM’s future growth. Tyler has completed his Certified Financial Planning courses at DePaul University and plans to sit for the CFP exam soon.

Tyler lives in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood with his fiancée . Outside of the office, he enjoys playing hockey and cooking.

Favorites

Book: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Movie: Any Film by Quentin Tarantino
Band: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Type of Food: Steak and Seafood
Pizza Style: Thin-crust tavern style
Quote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
Travel Destination: Portugal
Hobbies/Activities: Hockey, Stand-up Paddleboarding, and Golf.
Childhood Memory: Going to the family cottage with cousins

(708) 447-7086 info@forestasset.com