The market’s mood swings are getting worse, your expenses keep going up, and your retirement plan is DIY. Where can you find advice you can trust? Here’s how to pluck an expert from a crowd of empty suits.

Bill Metzger needed some solid advice. After decades of hard work, the then 46-year-old Kansas software-support specialist had managed to stash away more than $2 million in savings. He had a dream of being financially set for life, so much so that if he ever felt trapped in a stifling job, he could just give notice and walk away. Then he could buy his dream home in a rugged American terrain such as Colorado or the Pacific Northwest, enjoy the mountains, lakes, and hiking trails, and not have to worry a single day about his next paycheck.

The year was 2000, and the long bull market was starting to look a little wobbly, so Metzger hired a prominent national brokerage to oversee his investments. The firm put his cash in a program supposedly steered by top brokers, the best and the brightest. So how did those experts handle his life savings? They loaded him up on then-frothy tech stocks such as Worldcom and Agilent Technologies, despite his relatively conservative investment orientation. For the honor of their oversight, they also dinged him for an annual “wrap fee” of 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent, according to lawyer Diane Nygaard.

When the market began tanking, “No one said anything to me,” recalls Metzger. When he called up in a panic as his savings were vanishing before his eyes, he was assured everything was still on track. Once, to his astonishment, he was even informed that his broker had left the firm a while ago. “Here’s your new guy,” he says, remembering what they told him. “It was unbelievable.” Within two years, Metzger had lost $900,000.

“The brokers were billed as the best of the best,” says Metzger, now 53, “but things were going down and down, and they did nothing. They were charging too much and not acting in my best interest.” Metzger sued, alleging that the brokers unsuitably managed his account, and an arbitrator ruled in his favor.

But as is typical in these cases, it was a victory in name only: He recovered just $10,000. He did, however, discover a valuable secret about money management. As the arbitration process unfolded, and the legal duties of his brokers were spelled out, Metzger was shocked to learn that some of his financial advisors, to whom he had entrusted his life savings, had no legal obligation to act in his best interest.

You read that correctly. While a broker is required to offer “suitable” investments, he is perfectly within his rights to ignore the investments that would be best for you. If faced with the opportunity to put your money in, say, a spectacular, low-fee mutual fund or a middling fund that will pay him a big, fat commission, there’s no law preventing him from selling you the lemon. Indeed, the way many brokerage accounts are structured, investors don’t ever have access to commission-free funds. As for Metzger, he’s still not back to even on his investments, despite the market’s run-up in recent years.

If you need financial advice, you obviously want to find someone who is both completely trustworthy and highly skilled. You probably ought to hire a planner who can help you with all aspects of your financial life, not just buying and selling stocks. And personality is important: You’re less likely to understand, much less act on, advice from someone who’s not simpatico. So how do you find such an advisor? The first step is to understand the distinctions that Metzger didn’t find out about until it was too late.

The rules that differentiate brokers from registered investment advisors predate World War II. Unlike a broker, a registered investment advisor is considered a “fiduciary,” a term that means he is legally required to act in your best interest. Of the reams of people out there offering themselves up as financial gurus, only some are actually fiduciaries. What makes matters even more confusing is that, until recently, brokers were allowed to act as both advisors (fiduciaries) and brokers with the same client. That means the same guy could apply different standards at different times, offering the best advice one day and self-interested advice the next.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took a small step to address that problem this past October, after a court ordered it to change rules that allowed brokers to wear two hats. Under the new rules, brokerages now have to maintain clients in advisory accounts, complete with full fiduciary duties, or shuffle them into regular ­brokerage accounts, with a lower bar of consumer protections. Meanwhile, the SEC hired the RAND Corporation to study the issue and suggest a better regulatory scheme. “There’s so much consumer confusion,” says Barbara Roper, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America. “Investors just don’t understand the difference between brokers and advisors.”

You sweat blood to get your account statement to six figures, and your family is counting on you to continue to build that wealth. To find a planner who can help, start by getting names from friends and colleagues and checking lists such as Barron’s Top 100 independent financial advisors. Once you have a list, here are the criteria you should use to narrow it down.

Define the mission. While job number one for a financial advisor may be to invest your cash wisely, odds are you could use help in other areas too. A comprehensive planner will tune up every aspect of your financial life, from monthly budgeting to reducing your insurance costs to saving for your kids’ college educations. As corporate America increasingly shifts workers into 401(k)s and away from pension plans, employees have been given immense responsibility but very few tools for making the right decisions. A planner will help you choose the best funds and develop a retirement-savings strategy. A true comprehensive planner will ask for voluminous investment details, perhaps including tax records going back for years, and detailed info about your short- and long-term goals. The process is not always easy—it’s been likened to a financial rectal exam—but the more information your planner has, the better he can target the plan to your specific needs. And the faster you will build wealth.  “It’s the biggest pain in the neck, and if it’s not, then you should be very worried,” says Roper. A lazy planner can use a one-size-fits-all plan for everyone.

Follow the money. There’s a mutual fund called Federated American Leaders. It has been a terrible performer, falling behind the market over both the short-term and the long-term. So why have investors poured $1.8 billion into this fund? Because brokers have sold it to them. The broker collects $5.50 for every $100 invested. Your first question for a financial advisor: How, exactly, are you going to make money off me? To maximize the chance that you’re getting conflict-free advice, hire a fee-only planner, who charges an upfront fee or a percentage of assets under management (usually around 1 percent a year). Not only are such advisors legally bound to work in your interest, but there’s also a structural advantage: They don’t earn commissions, so they have no incentive to recommend one product over another, or to recommend anything for that matter. To be sure, there are talented and honest planners under every compensation model. Indeed, for a sophisticated investor, a broker can serve as an excellent sounding board for ideas, and since the investor pays only per transaction, a broker might be the best option in that case. But if you lack the time or expertise to evaluate the advice, stick with a fee-only planner, whose interests are aligned completely with yours: The better his performance, the more likely you are to keep him. And if he earns a percentage of your portfolio, then he stands to boost his income as your nest egg grows.

Make sense of the alphabet soup. Unfortunately, there’s no single designation for financial planners. Anyone can hang out a shingle and say he’s an advisor. Certain certifications, though, can at least give you some level of comfort that you’re not dealing with a quack. Designations like CFP (certified financial planner) and ChFC (chartered financial consultant) are a good start, and an advanced degree such as a master’s in finance doesn’t hurt. “I’d ­eliminate anyone who didn’t at least have the CFP designation,” says Roy Diliberto, chairman and CEO of Philadelphia-based RTD Financial Advisors. Members of prominent organizations like the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (napfa.org) and the Financial Planning Association (fpanet.org) abide by codes of ethics, require minimum levels of training, and offer databases you can search to find an advisor.  NAPFA also requires continuing education for its members.

Do your due diligence. To weed out the really bad apples, head to sec.gov, the Web site of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and click on “Check out brokers and advisers,” which will bring you to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database. (There’s one for brokers, too, called the Central Registration Depository.) You’ll find fun facts such as run-ins with state or federal regulators and problems with previous clients, and a complete rundown of services, fees, and investment strategies. It’s all on the advisor’s form ADV, and it is required reading unless you enjoy living on the edge. You can get more information from your state regulator (visit nasaa.org for contact information).

You’re the boss, so hire smart. You know hiring a new employee involves interviewing multiple candidates, checking up on credentials, and meeting in person to get a true sense of the individual. Hiring a great planner is no different, so try at least three separate planners on for size. If the planner has a staff, ask how much access you’ll actually have to your advisor when you have questions. And find out how long he has been in business. You want someone who has weathered at least one bear market.

References? Throw ’em out. Your first instinct as a conscientious consumer might be to ask for solid references. Not a bad thought, but truthfully, it’s almost a worthless venture. Think about it: Is someone really going to give you contact information for dissatisfied customers? “However bad a planner might be, I guarantee there are at least two or three people who love him,” says Diliberto. A better thought: Ask for references of professionals he interacts with regularly, like outside accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents.

If you don’t understand him, show him the door. If a planner is throwing out jargon on complex investments and you’re just not getting it, you may feel sheepish about asking him to break it down for you. But if you ask him to take it down a notch, and he can’t or won’t explain things in terms you fully understand, you should look elsewhere. Because it’s not your fault, it’s his. “If he’s just trying to impress you, fire him,” says John Sestina, president of planners John E. Sestina & Co., in Columbus, Ohio. “If he can’t communicate in ways you understand, that affects trust, and he’s just not going to be able to help you.”

Opt for a flat fee, if possible. If a planner is charging you by the hour, beware: You don’t really know what your final bill is going to be. “I recently had my estate plan redone by an attorney, and every call was another $250,” says Sestina. “Guess what? I stopped calling him.” That’s why he calls this the least-favorable billing arrangement for clients. What’s better: a fixed fee for comprehensive financial planning, which is what Sestina calls “proactive and continuous.” In other words, the planner isn’t just checking in every year, or even every quarter, but constantly anticipating the tweaks your financial plan is going to require.

Beware the one-stop shop. If a planner claims he can do everything from investment advice to tax planning to legal troubleshooting, it might sound terrific, but it’s not. Different needs require different specialists, and a prospective planner should be open to working as one member of a larger team. If he’s not, that’s a red flag. “Anyone who claims he’s an expert in all areas is questionable,” says Roper. “You might have someone on staff who is responsible for portfolio management, another who is in charge of insurance recommendations, and an outside attorney who works with them. The planner doesn’t necessarily do every single aspect himself.” A bonus of the “team” ethic: They’ll constantly be looking over each other’s shoulders…on your behalf.