Patrick McKenna - Executive Chairman & Co-Founder

My motivation for founding Facet is quite personal. I grew up in a small town, where the local financial advisor worked for a large national brokerage firm. When my mother, who was a single mother, was forced to retire at 60 because of medical issues, he pushed hard to sell her one of the worst possible investments: a variable annuity. It would have paid him a fat $7,000 commission, the most profitable (for him) investment he could offer, all of which would have come from her savings. When my mother told me this, I wanted to drive to his office and confront him. I was furious. But then I realized that he’s not a bad person, he’s working in a system with bad incentives. I advised my mom not to buy the variable annuity. But this also set me on the path to solving this problem for all the people who are like my mom. All the people who work hard, save money, and need help making sound long-term financial decisions, but even more to address the sincere anxiety that all of us deal with when considering our financial futures.