[help_everyone]

I would say so. My understanding is most of finance is more about who you know than anything else. This understanding comes from my work in the legal industry and having high-powered and incredibly wealthy clients. The product we were selling (legal services) wasn't any better than what was down the street but because of personal connections we got the business and it seemed that way for most of the deals that revolved around their (wealthy people's) decisions.

I specifically dealt with legalities of financial matters of the very wealthy.

edit... I'd like to add that the majority of my clients didn't have the time or the willingness to do their own research on the vast majority of their personal finances. Instead they would use people they trust at specific institutions and give little thought after that.