I recommend the following resources to help at-home investors or investors who want to be prepared to challenge and understand the recommendations of their financial advisors. They provide a broad set of resources and help to guide non-professional investors at reasonable cost.

This is not necessarily an endorsement for working directly with individual brokers or agents, which you have to evaluate on a person by person basis.

Investing Platforms

• Charles Schwab at www.schwab.com provides a trading platform in addition to typical portfolio managed funds.
• Fidelity Investments at www.fidelity.com provides a trading platform in addition to typical portfolio managed funds..
• Vanguard  at www.vanguard.com provides broad investment diversification opportunity at low fee / cost structure through portfolio managed funds like mutual funds.

Examples of Investing Tools/Resources

• Charles Schwab provides a quick and easy asset allocation model that can be helpful in evaluating personal risk tolerance and diversification across investment class.
• Fidelity provides a good tool for sector analysis within stocks. You can start with sector overview and drill down for more information within each sector.
• Investopedia is a useful reference site for basics ranging from investing dictionary to market strategies and tutorials.
• State Street Global Advisors SPDR, iShares by Blackrock, and ETF Resume are examples of sites that provide information focused around Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
• Vanguard provides a search tool for bond funds and other mutual funds that provides quick research and selection for fixed income investments that may be right for you.