While much of the financial industry is undergoing transformation, the traditional brokerage industry has resisted technological change so far. But newcomers offering mobile options for customers show there is a faster, low-cost alternative.

Regional banks are selling more and more of the machines that big retailers use to count, store and deposit cash. As old-school as it sounds, it's making the banks money at a time when they need alternative revenue sources.

Fidelity National Information Services, a provider of banking and payments technology, agreed to buy software maker SunGard Data Systems in a deal valued at $9.1 billion, including the assumption of debt.

The acquisition of Yodlee, considered PFM's pioneering firm, would cement Envestnet's capability to serve an emerging demand for data aggregation and leveraging data insights and behavioral science in wealth management.

Chicago-based Envestnet will pay $660 million in cash and stock for Yodlee, a California firm that sells data-aggregation services to banks and others.

Commentary: All signs point to the need for advisors to change, simply in order to remain relevant to clients and prospects.

Commentary: Firms can more effectively compete with digital upstarts and grow AUM by adopting new strategies that scale the business at a much lower cost.

Robo fears are based on newer technology where the motivation is to replace people, says the CEO of Addepar. Its portfolio analysis platforms currently serve $300 billion in AUM, the firm says.

Commentary: No human, no matter how sophisticated, can operate as consistently, quickly or as efficiently as the technology powering an automated investing service.

After 17 years with LPL, planner says the large B-D's service dropped off.

Security and business continuity concerns must be addressed in service agreements when outsourcing tech operations to a third party.

A new, free app from T. Rowe Price gives advisors key market intelligence in a modern, scalable and user-friendly way.

"Make no doubt about it, we are not near a recession," says LPL chief investment officer Burt White.

To help improve their online presence, Fidelity announced two new offerings for advisors.

One goal is to fully automate LPL's roughly 20 million pages it uses each year and eliminate the experience of working in an office over-filled with files.

Almost all robo advisors were founded in 2009 or later and they have never seen a meaningful downturn in the financial markets. This is a major issue.

The algorithms, which can speed up financial processes by making millions of calculations faster than any human ever could, are not infallible.

“The changes we announced today makes the [robo] cost issue go away,” LPL Chairman and CEO Mark Casady tells Financial Planning.

Suggesting that the financial advice industry has evolved into robos, says former SEC Commissioner Steve Wallman, "is like saying the oceans have evolved into swimming pools."