I think the issue is that many people do not regard financial advisors as professionals. Lawyers and doctors (and vets) require a license to practice and are subject to sanction by their regulatory body. In the case of lawyers there is a strong case to be made that since their regulatory body is also their representative body there is a conflict of interest but that’s a different matter. The bottom line is that many people are sceptical about people who claim to be “Professional” advisors. This, in my opinion, is unfair but never the less I think that it is the case.
2 points to make,firstly, to qualify as a doctor, accountant, vet, dentist etc, requies years of formal education and in many cases sitting professional exams for a number of years to receive the qualifications while also doing a certain amount of time in an apprenticeship.
Secondly any of the above professions can suffer both professionally and financially from any mistakes made, eg a case last week of one of the 'big 4 auditors who received a fee of over 800k for doing the audit of a mineral water firm belonging to Greencore, failed to pick up management fraud during their audit and as such were replaced as auditors and had the story exposed in the media. if a doctor made a medical error his insurance will shoot thru the roof, his reputation will be in tatters and he may even have his license revoked.
My point being when you're paying large amounts for any of the above professional services you expect proper service or will go elsewhere & failure by the profession to provide to the standard expected will be to their own loss.
Unfortunately when dealing with mortgage brokers & estate agents firstly there are no professional examination requirements, secondly there are no University Degree requirements (or at least i know of guys with no degree qualifications working in this industry), all you have to do is go to court pay your license fee and have a Garda vet for you. while also there seems to be very weak self regulation for these bodies while government are still dilly dallying over introducing proper Bills regarding these industries.
just to wander off topic, i was recently quoted 85 to get a lawnmower service!! made doctor's visits seem like a bargain!