Good info. Thanks to all. I also like the idea of having a local office to visit when questions on complex issues come up. I believe WF, Fido and Schwab all have one in my area.
Warning: The great WF PMA package contains the free online broker, but the local WF banks/offices do not have the free broker. Instead, they have the high-fee wealth advisors. So if you want a local office, WF is not the way to go. But the PMA package comes with free checking, so having a local WF is a plus for banking, not investing.
We have personal accounts at WF, TDAmeritrade, Vanguard, and company retirement plans at Fidelity and TIAA-CREF. If I had to choose one place to consolidate all our accounts, then I would choose the WellsFargo PMA package*. With WF, you can buy all the Vanguard and Fidelity funds without commission, so you get for free almost everything that Vanguard and Fidelity offer. Also at WF, you can buy all the ETFs without commission as well, including the iShares, the Schwab, and the Vanguard ETFs.
Another plus for WF is that the downloadable 1099DIV and 1099B are complete, so tax returns are trivial. WF also has online trivial specific lot identification when selling shares. Both these are advantages over Vanguard. Vanguard has not completely integrated their mutual fund business with their brokerage business, so that makes me rate them l lower as well
As for "research", there really is no need to do any special research. All the stuff you need is available on the web for free. Thus, one should not use "research" to rate brokers or financial institutions.
*I'd also open a TreasuryDirect account.