Alternative financial service providers that sell prepaid cards, bill pay, check cashing and other services to underbanked consumers are becoming more sophisticated with the ways they mine customer data.

Outlook for the planners -- who were recruited with a promise that they would "not [be] required to sell" -- seems to depend on whether you talk to Northwestern Mutual or LearnVest.

Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Wallet are among the mobile payment services vying for dominance. Here's what every banker needs to know to get a game plan in place.

Traditional firms must boost their digital wealth management tools or risk being overrun by those that already do.

More acquisitions are expected in the digital wealth management space as firms look to quickly add tech platforms and services.

Northwestern Mutual, the nation's second-largest life insurance company, is buying LearnVest, an online financial planning start-up founded in 2009.

During the planning process for a digital platform strategy, Fidelity says its partners and brokers asked why it couldn't just go buy eMoney Advisor instead.

By poaching Ruth Porat from Morgan Stanley, it's clear Google wants to forge closer relationships with banks. That's because banks hold the key to helping Google expand Google Wallet.

Dream Forward Financial wants to take a bite out of the customer base of traditional plan providers like Fidelity by offering what it says is transparent and cheaper service.

Vanguard says assets in its Personal Advisor Services start up, still in the pilot phase with no paid advertising support, rose from $755 million in 2013 to $10.1 billion at the end of last year.

Only a third of advisors surveyed by IMCA feel safe enough to say that robos pose "no threat" to their business. A skills upgrade is one line of defense, the group advises.

The standard practice of beta testing in the software industry clashes hard against banking culture, says one PFM software development veteran, where executives fear that a wonky app could mean customer attrition.

The "freemium" model that transformed Rovio from a game developer into a $200 million entertainment company is what firms like FutureAdvisor are relying on to disrupt the traditional fee-driven model of wealth management.

CEO Jon Stein remembers when nobody listened to his message that automated investing was going to catch on with investors. He's not hurting for money anymore -- and he wants to take your business.

“We were worried [advisors] would be at a competitive disadvantage," says Bernie Clark, Schwab Advisor Services' executive vice president.

While managed account programs are projected to grow significantly, many advisors are not confident in their platform's ability to meet their needs due to the difficulty in integrating data firmwide.

Planners are demanding more sophisticated tools and vendors are responding. Here are the top takeaways from this year's Technology Tools for Today Conference.

Online competitors like Wealthfront and Betterment are taking issue with Schwab's characterization of its automated investment service as cheaper, better and not just skewed to millennial investors.

The bank has partnered with Morningstar's HelloWallet to offer customers financial health scores and a suite of digital tools meant to provide financial advice at a time when branch transactions are on a decline.

Pushing out its app on the same day as Apple's latest show is an example of Fidelity taking advantage of a first-mover branding opportunity.