Luanne Roth of Cary, N.C., bought $400,000 of a complex, Wachovia-underwritten Allstate bond that lost 75% of its value. She says her Wachovia broker billed it as almost as safe as cash, and while she doesn't blame him personally, she has filed an arbitration claim against the bank. As a former tech company finance chief, Roth, 55, could handle her own investments. But she spends her time doing volunteer work and says of investing: "I don't want that to dominate my life." So she's hired a new pro, a neighbor who recommends mostly low-cost index funds, charges her a fee and takes no commissions from product sellers. "I know where he lives," she jokes.

The market for financial advice is in turmoil. Unhappy clients are dumping and suing their pros; brokers and advisors are switching firms in large numbers (in the first six months of the year 11% of those working at Wall Street firms left, according to Discovery Database); and Washington is considering new rules that could bar advisors from selling their own firms' products, as Roth says her broker did. (Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo, declines comment.)

If you're looking to hire or fire an advisor, or trying to decide whether to follow your pro to a new firm, here are some pointers.

Consider doing it yourself.

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The Internet and new products make it easier than ever to be your own money manager, but it takes some time and (with today's market volatility) confidence. You can build a diversified portfolio using low-cost mutual funds and ETFs and then track and adjust your asset allocations using online services such as Financialengines.com. Or you might get help from your fund company. Fidelity Investments emphasizes its online asset allocation and planning tools. Both Vanguard Group and T. Rowe Price offer free advice from human planners if you bring in $100,000 in new funds or have $500,000 invested.

Benchmark your pro.

If you hire an advisor, agree in advance on not only a target asset allocation but also benchmarks for evaluating performance. For example, your small-company stocks might be measured against the Russell 2000. What if you haven't set benchmarks but want a quick read on how your advisor has been doing? Norman Pappous, a laid-off Merrill Lynch financial advisor, offers Evaluatemyadvisor.com. Provide three years of back statements, and for $500 he'll choose benchmarks and evaluate your returns. In half the assessments done so far, he says, a client could have equaled (or beaten) the advisor's performance with a low-cost mix of exchange-traded funds.

Decide how you want to pay.

Pay commissions and you might give the broker an incentive to steer you to expensive or dubious products. That fact is a marketing point for investment advisors who charge fees only, calculated by the hour or as a percentage of assets under management. "Most of what the Wall Street firms have is proprietary stuff, so you already know there are higher expense ratios built in there," says Mary Malgoire, a fee-only advisor in Bethesda, Md. While they typically use low-cost mutual funds, fee-only advisors themselves don't come cheap. Malgoire's firm charges 1% a year of all investment assets up to $1 million, 0.8% of the next $3 million and 0.35% on the rest.

Traditional Wall Street firms like Bank of America's Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will also happily charge you a percentage of assets--as much as 3% for "wrap accounts" that usually include trading costs. "This is a terrible deal for investors," insists Edward Siedle, a financial fraud investigator from Ocean Ridge, Fla. That's true for those who trade infrequently, or have small accounts charged the highest percentage fee, but not always for wealthier clients. For example, clients with more than $2 million invested can get fees below 1% of assets from Morgan Stanley.

If you want access to the products of a big firm (e.g., initial public offerings, trust services and securities denominated in a foreign currency), appreciate stock picking ideas and have the confidence to say no, then using a traditional broker who works on commission can also make sense.

Watch who has your money.

If you hire a small firm--or follow your big-firm advisor going out on his own--make sure your money is handled through a custodial or brokerage account in your name at a separate firm. This won't save you from bad advice, but it does provide protection from old-fashioned embezzlement or a Madoff-style scam. Many small advisory firms use Charles Schwab & Co., TD Ameritrade or Fidelity Investments as custodians. Average investors should be wary of any mingling of separate clients' funds--except in an sec-registered mutual fund.