For our taxable accounts, we use 3 different places currently:
1. TDAmeritrade - we have been long time TDWaterhouse customers and it was bought by Ameritrade. In this account we have invested in stock and options, but nowadays we have mostly ETFs. Trades have always been $9.95 for us.
2. Vanguard - we have been long-time Vanguard customers. We like the return of the MM fund for cash, the free financial plan, the website's portfolio analysis software. Besides the MM fund, we own Vanguard HealthCare and some funds in rollover IRAs. We have used their index funds, but we are into ETFs nowadays and not Vanguard index funds.
3. WellsFargo - we have our checking account there (free everything) and a linked brokerage account. We had to switch from TDWaterhouse bank when TDW was bought by Ameritrade. That got us into the brokerage at WellsFargo as well, where our trades are $2.95 (even for those funds with transaction fees like Dodge&Cox, much much cheaper than TDAm). Eventually our trades will be free. I think this is the best deal going if you have have enough assets. The MM fund used for the sweep pays 4.6%, not as good as Vanguard, but much, much better than TDAmeritrade. Anytime we sell something in our TDAmeritrade account, we transfer the cash to our WellsFargo account.
Indeed, I have the dilemma of Vanguard vs WellsFargo when it comes to which is better.
Vanguard has better MMfund rate than WF -- the difference amounts to $500 a year interest for us, but at WF I can even DCA into ETFs for virtually no cost and I get all the perceived benefits of intraday trading, limit orders, margin, options, etc. It takes a day or two to transfer funds from Vanguard to WF and back. Vanguard is a bit slow and stodgy for my tastes, but you can't argue with success.