You’re right, to an extent. There are many advisers who may have questionable motives underlying their recommendations.

If you search them out, however, you can find some legitimately independent people who will give you sound recommendations based on solid principles. In many cases, these people don’t really make much money from your involvement if you aren’t making money.

The only problem there, of course, is that you generally need to have a fair chunk of change to get started with these folks.