Recently my wife and I went to pay a visit to our Financial Planner. We scheduled the meeting to in order to get a detailed picture of our financial situation. We went into the meeting with our financial records and excitement. After he asked a number of questions about our assests, our professions, salaries, plans, etc. he found that we could combine our debts into a nice Mortage Equity Loan. Then he crunched the numbers and spun off some facts and figures.

At one point in the conversation he actually said and I quote "we're practically giving money after." This is where I started to get an uneasy feeling. Then he went on to compliment my wife telling her that she looks like Nicole Kidman. I was not too pleased because well she was still blushing, and he was eager to get us to start filling out the loan application. I told him that we will think about it and get back to him.

After the 1 hour meeting, I found myself not trusting our financial advisor, because although the plan to combine our debts (- school loan, parent's loan, and mortgage) it would be a poor choice at this time. He wanted to take our equity and increase the amount of time we would be paying off debt. He told us - don't pay off your debts, you're gonna need that money, instead get another loan to combine your debt into one payment.

Basically this deal is good for the bank and not good for us, so we've decided not to take his advice at this time. This brings me to my original question- Who can you trust with your money? How do you know which CPA are really working for your best interest, versus working for their own best interest, they are in business.