When we told our friends that we were planning to create this website, they all had the same sentiment; Clearly, we had too much time on our hands.  To an extent, they were correct.  You see, in the late 1990s, I built an internet business up from scratch.  In 1999, it was bought by a group of investors and then sold off in pieces to several major technology companies.  At that point, my wife and I had enough money to retire comfortably, and so we did.

Then, one day in 2001 , when we returned from a trip to Canada, my wife opened up our brokerage statement that had arrived while we were away.  What she read was, clearly, a mistake.  It had to be!  Half of our money was gone?  We immediately called up our "wealth manager" and, after 20 minutes of voice prompts and menus, we learned that not only was half of our money gone, but our so-called manager had taken a 3 month vacation.

Steaming mad, my wife and I got in our car and drove to the nearest brokerage.  We grabbed the first person who was willing to talk to us and asked her 'what is the longest vacation that you have taken since working here?'  'One week,' she replied.  Good enough.  Our money was now with her.  Surely, she wouldn't cause the same nightmare that our last person had.  Defeated, we went home,  with the assurance that, even though we had experienced a horrible setback, it wouldn't happen again.

You can imagine how stupid we felt when, in December of 2007, we opened our statement only to find that we had lost half of our portfolio - again.  It was deja vu.  We called up our bank and had them call our brokerage, liquidate everything, and move it all into our savings account.  We were so mad.  Partly because, for a second time, a broker had sold us down the river.  Partly because, for a second time, we had allowed it to happen.

Then, it hit me.  We have been blessed to have half of our money disappear - twice - and still be comfortable.  Most people, however, are not as blessed.  I sat my wife down, and together we came up with our devilish plan.  We were going to pick 1000 financial professionals, and then we were going to grill them - bad.  We were going to be so obnoxious that even we wouldn't be able to stand ourselves.  We were going to pick the BEST of the group, the one that 'took a lickin' and kept on tickin,' the one that we know that, had we been his or her client, none of this would have ever happened.  Then, we were going to share that person with everyone we could via this website.  So, that is how GreatFA.com came to be.

We would encourage you to use this website as a resource.  We will detail our selection for the best financial professional here, and we will keep an ongoing blog of our dealings with that person.  If you are looking for a new financial professional, or if you ever wonder if you are getting the level of service and attention you deserve, then this website will help guide you in the right direction.