On the other hand, any financial planner who told you the best thing to do was to stick your money into the highest-yielding bank account you can find would be out of a job. They have an incentive to make investing look complicated.
Not surprisingly, commission-based financial planners hawked their firm's mutual funds which just so happened to have high fees on them.
With my fee-based financial planner, their only incentive was to make sure I did well, was happy, and would be back next time to get more unbiased advice. If you're interested in a referral, send me an email. She appears on CNBC a couple times a month, and I've been satisfied with her work.