Who's even less trustworthy than an accounting firm? Wealth managers!

Accounting firms haven't been getting a lot of good press lately. Latest example, today's reports that KPMG has agreed to pay $195 million to wealthy clients who say the accounting firm sold them illegal tax shelters.

Curiously enough, CPAs and accounting firms were the only financial advisers rated “very trustworthy” by even a bare majority (53%) of respondents to the latest U.S. Trust survey of wealthy folks.

Only 41% deemed private banks very trustworthy, and only 38% were very trustful of fee-based investment managers in general.

Those rated least trustworthy were: mutual fund companies, rated very trustworthy by 21%, insurance companies (20%), and stockbrokers or brokerage firms (19%).

Could it be that today's financial advisers possess less integrity than those of generations past? Or do we simply live in a cynical age?