Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

What are the biggest technology trends, innovations and ideas impacting advisors today? Over 600 people, including more than 300 advisors, descended on Miami for the eighth annual Technology Tools for Today Conference. The event featured the industry’s best and brightest highlighting all the latest technology tools that will held advisors be more competitive, effective and efficient. Here are some of the most interesting things our editors heard, and advisors and financial experts tweeted, from the event.

In January Financial Planning featured tips from industry experts on how to improve your practice. Now, advisors sound off with their own tips for colleagues and competitors.

Demographic shifts, technology implementation and investing challenges were in the spotlight this week in San Diego, where about 3,000 advisors and other industry professionals came together for TD Ameritrade Institutional’s annual conference. Between the presentations, meetings and hallway conversations, Financial Planning heard lots of smart takeaways for advisors.

How can you build a better advisory practice? Check out some tips from the experts.

How can advisors be more productive and take more time off? According to Jimmy Williams of Regier, Carr & Monroe in McAlester, OK and Randy Thurman of Investment Advisors Inc., by focusing on a dozen simple steps, the big picture becomes simpler.

Change is the name of the game in 2013. A new report from Aite Group looks at the major trends that could dominate the wealth management industry this year.

Though many advisors say that they want to boost client satisfaction, most don’t know how to make it happen. By taking the right steps to keep your clients highly satisfied, you will be able to position your practice for stronger growth.

As an increasing number of fee-based advisors leave wirehouses to go independent, some custodians are experiencing some of the strongest growth in the financial industry. Here are the top 15 custodians as ranked by RIA assets.

As the RIA industry grows and reshapes itself, advisors need to keep an eye on the shifting competitive landscape. In our annual RIA Leaders report, in addition to identifying the top 50 firms by AUM and by growth, Financial Planning ran the numbers to find 50 emerging fee-only RIA firms to watch.

The RIA sector drastically outpaced the growth rate of the rest of the financial services industry in the past year, growing at 13% versus 1.3%, according to research from Cerulli & Associates. For our annual RIA Leaders report, Financial Planning ran the numbers to look at the 50 fastest-growing fee-only RIA firms for 2012.