Not always.
I have healed myself better than any doctor ever could. If I trusted what every doctor has ever told me, I'd have had a few unrequired surgeries, and boatloads of medical bills from unnecessary tests to guzzle insurance money and my money. It would almost be like paying triple tithe to medical professionals.
The importance of whether or not you should trust someone isn't dependent solely on their qualifications as an academic or a professional.
Trust is a matter of integrity and friendship not intellectual achievement. You shouldn't just go to someone because that person is smart.
You ought to consider both whether the person is competent and whether he has your best interests in mind.
Degrees are supposed to represent a certain degree of competence, but degrees do not denote integrity or compassion.
I'll quickly reiterate what jonathan said so eloquently a few posts back:
It all boils down to verifiable, repeatable evidence.
Yes, I agree that there are fakers in the world. Fakers can't produce verifiable, repeatable evidence.
This is all well and good if you have the time and patience to verify and repeat absolutely every claim made. But if you did that, then
you would be the academic professional that the rest of us would be wondering if we could trust...
and fakers can produce evidence that gives the appearance of being verifiable and repeatable. And people can also use facts (that are verifiable and repeatable) in misleading ways to support their claims.