re: How to asses financial advisor in this market

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I know there are some good ones but most don't work at a household name institution.

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I will say, most of the advisors I have encountered at, say, Edward Jones or Wells Fargo Advisors get paid commissions and know VERY little other than investment options available to them. They won't give you recommendations on your 401k they aren't managing and only care about the account they can see, not your entire portfolio. Then they make excuses to buy and sell in the account because Christmas is coming up and they need to get little Johnny a new iPad with their commission check.

Not every one is like that, but I've definitely met many who are. They give the rest of us "good guys" a bad rap. To your point, I do work at a smaller RIA and am not beholden to some corporate brand. We can implement our recommended strategy with whatever mutual fund or ETF we want - certainly all the ones available to individual investors and then some more only available to advisors. If there is a transaction fee, we justify it by making sure the purchase or sale is large enough to make the fee an incredibly minute percentage ($25 to buy $30,000 of a mutual would be worth it, for example). Most don't have transaction fees, though, and they don't even go to us - they go to Fidelity. We don't get paid any commissions whatsoever.

ETA: To be clear, I have met some competent Edward Jones or Wells Fargo Advisors FAs. They are just few and far between, in my personal experience.