I have Fidelity and there are things I like about it (the website and its features, and the 24/7 phone line with helpful people, and their no-fee zero cost choices), but I am not happy with the free advisors they provide. In my experience (admittedly limited), the free advisor basically runs the tools that I can do myself, that for example tell me my stock-to-bond ratio. What they don't do that would have been a lot more helpful, is look at every investment in each account and determine what would be better. For example, I had a Roth IRA and the small amount in it sat for several years in the 'core' position not growing at all. I'm sure I had at least one free advisor session during those years. It would have helped so much if they had noticed that and explained to me what the Roth IRA was and how the money could be better invested. Once I finally noticed the lack of growth and called Fidelity in the middle of the night on a weekend, the advisor I happened to reach was useful (after I overcame his initial reluctance to help because my account total was above what he was qualified to advise on, but I pointed out the one account I was asking about was within his qualifications) and the money was invested in a not-bad way but still below optimal (he recommended an age appropriate fund but I feel now that since it was a Roth he should have recommended a more aggressive growth option).
My parents did very well with Edward Jones and so have some wealthy connections of mine. I think I shied away from them because I felt like they had high fees but now I think maybe the fees would more than cover themselves by the better quality advice.
