Finding financial advisors or sales representatives who call themselves advisors is easy. They are seemingly on every street corner and you don't have to call them, they'll call you. More than one million people in the U.S. sell investment and insurance products:

• Independent advisors
• Financial planners
• Wall Street stockbrokers
• Life insurance agents
• Casualty insurance agents
• Bank representatives
• Accounting firm consultants

If you have to look for an advisor, there is always the Yellow Pages, the office down the street, the advisor who goes to your church, or the advisor who belongs to one of your clubs. Plus, friends, family, associates, and other professionals are more than happy to refer advisors to you if you ask them.

And, let's not leave out the Internet. There are tens of thousands of advisors on the Internet who would like to sell you products or provide financial advice. They all have websites that say they are trustworthy experts who always put your need to achieve financial goals ahead of their need to earn income or produce revenue for their companies. What else would they say?

Have you ever wondered why it's so easy to find advisors, but so difficult to determine their quality: