Self Directed Accounts

I have a 401K retirement account.
I have been offered a Self Directed Account.
I looked into it.
I called the company and was told me that I had to call another number. The guy I spoke to didn’t know much about the accounts. I had to read to him the document his company sent me with his phone number on it.
I called the other number looking for some municipal bonds.
I was told that I could not look the bonds up myself. I would need to call on the phone and the clerk would tell me about the bonds in their ‘inventory’.
I asked the fee.
I was told it was ‘built into the cost of the bonds’.
My private account charges 30 dollars.
The clerk told me that the fee for purchasing the bonds ‘varied’.
I asked for 5 triple-A municipal bonds in either West Virginia or Michigan.
He told me that I could get Virginia bonds for 54 hundred dollars.
(I didn’t ask for Virginia bonds.)
He said municipal bonds were not a good idea to put into a retirement fund because they are not federally taxed but that he wasn’t offering advice.
It took 5 minutes to realize that a Self Directed Account would be a rip off.
Individual trades cost $19.95 and dividends go into a money market account. If I didn’t get that cash out fast enough I might lose it all.
What makes you think George Bush’s personal accounts will be better?