(MONEY Magazine) – Everyone's a financial adviser today--or claims to be--but qualifications and competence vary widely. Some are brokers or insurance agents who've done additional coursework; others have passed a series of exams and accumulated years of experience as financial planners. The range of fees is just as wide. The most important thing to understand from the get-go is exactly how you'll be billed and what you'll get for your money. Here are some guidelines.

ADVICE BY THE HOUR. If you're comfortable with your overall financial picture but are concerned about, say, which 529 college savings plan to choose, a planner can help you on an hourly basis. Fees run from about $75 to $300 an hour and a minimum number of hours may be required.

FINANCIAL PLAN. If you want an in-depth assessment of your current and future needs in terms of asset allocation, insurance, taxes and so on, a comprehensive financial plan is the way to go. According to the Financial Planning Association, such plans run from $500 up into the thousands--as much as $10,000 for a wealthy client with complex planning needs.

ONGOING MANAGEMENT. If your portfolio is in the six figures, countless independent advisory and brokerage firms are eager to manage it for a fee. In fact, odds are that the broker you visited years ago is now called a financial adviser; fee-based products made up more than 25% of brokers' gross earnings for 2001, up 30% from 2000, according to the Securities Industry Association. Fees on assets under management can range from half a percentage point to 2.5 percentage points; commissions for trading may or may not be included. The Financial Planning Association says a fee-only planner might charge 1% on a $200,000 portfolio, or a set fee of a couple thousand dollars based on the needs of the client. A $200,000 wrap account at American Express Financial Advisors, meanwhile, might be levied a 2% fee, or $4,000 (fees range from 1% to 3%; the larger the account, the lower the fee).

If you're worried that your planner--whether a broker, accountant or insurance agent in a former life--will favor certain financial products that pay him or her a more generous commission, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers (www.napfa.org) has more than 750 fee-only members who are paid directly by their clients and accept no commissions. --SUZANNE WOOLLEY