Ask for historic performance figures and see if you can talk to one or two of their existing clients. Not that we know of. You can get all the information that you want from a publicly held company just by writing to the company itself in care of the president of the company. They will be happy to send out an annual report to you in the mail and provide you with the information necessary to buy stock. On the other hand, a discount stock broker will do the same thing and probably a heck of a lot faster.
Prospectuses are free.
We would even suggest that you may want to use the services of a discount broker to buy your stocks. After all, when you want to sell them, you may be in a hurry and not want to wait for the mailman to deliver your request. My wife and I just had our first child. I want to begin investing money in an aggressive mutual fund to help him out with college costs down the road. However, I am also interested in saving on my taxes through giving of gifts to him.