For all the hype surrounding social media sites as the next great marketing channel for advisors, a panel of industry leaders warned that the jury is still out on what role tools like Facebook and Twitter will ultimately play in financial-services firms.

The Chicago-based platform provider and outsourcing firm unveiled Envestnet Intelligence, a new content and analytic offering for advisors at its annual Advisor Summit conference in Chicago.

When you think about apps that help you as a financial professional, your first thought may be about tools like stock market apps. These are useful, but not life-changing. Blogger Craig Faulkner offers three apps that will help every advisor build a stronger practice.

Putnam Investments has some advice on what not to say on Twitter to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

The human side of financial planning has been somewhat overlooked among some advisors who have tended to limit their interactions with clients to providing financial advice. The high-touch approach could become a "growing market niche" for advisors.

Riskalyze Pro's risk-assessment and portfolio-construction tools aim to help you keep clients from buying high and selling low.

Software makers Geezeo and Access Softek are teaming to offer money management tools that banks can deliver to customers via smartphones and other mobile devices.

Schwab’s CEO Walt Bettinger sent clients a letter apologizing for the inconvenience caused by the company’s website outage Tuesday.

Fidelity Investments has rolled out a Windows Phone 8 brokerage app for Windows Phone users to help them manage their investments on the go.

Jim Rohr says cybersecurity is one of the biggest issues banks face. The frequent distributed denial-of-service-attacks on banks' web servers that have occurred since September are doing more than disrupting service.

Financial services firms and advisors are relying on new technology and enhanced training to to take a more holistic financial planning approach with clients.

“We have the opportunity to think beyond tweeting and posting about how this will fundamentally change products in this industry,” said Augie Ray, director of social media strategy for Prudential Financial. “It’s not just about getting content out – we certainly have to do that too – but there are a lot of changes coming in the next five years.”

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has temporarily withdrawn a controversial proposal to require advisors, brokers and firms to incorporate links to the BrokerCheck database when they post content to social media sites.

Consumer advocate Jennifer Openshaw is launching a new company that offers advisors a platform in which to build social media communities, with some compliance features built in.

Fidelity says the new desktop will enable the “anywhere advisor."

Kasina’s new social media report ranks Vanguard, Sun Life, iShares, Putnam and Franklin Templeton Investments as the top five asset managers for social media practices.

A flood of traffic took down Charles Schwab & Co.’s website late Tuesday.

In March, Financial Planning Magazine launched a series of 30 tips to help advisors make better use of social media . We took that list and selected 15 of the best that you could apply to your own practice.

With a changing (and aging) membership, the Financial Planning Association is focusing on ways to remain as relevant as possible in a digital era.

Succession planning, regulatory and technological issues will be the main focus for Raymond James Financial Services over the next year, according to Scott Curtis, the firm's president.