A survey from the Oechsli Institute reveals that advisors are underusing the personal aspects of social media to build client rapport.

Savvy financial advisors are using social sites to differentiate themselves from the competition and to build trust and credibility. Perhaps the biggest reason for financial advisors to get involved in social marketing can be summed up in four words: Your customers are there.

Omyen, which is based in Westwood, Mass., specializes in developing technologies for comprehensive financial planning and client education. The technology will be added to the FPA Practitioner Resource Guide, which is a directory of solutions and benefits to help FPA members build their business.

Inefficient account opening processes are leading to client defections and advisor dissatisfaction with broker-dealers, according to a report released by Aite Group on Tuesday.

A new "Going Independent" solution package, introduced this week, combines compliance and practice aid to help advisors who want to own their own wealth management shop.

It's no secret that the rise of mobile devices has created one of the largest shifts in consumer behavior in the last 40 years. ABI research reports that 1.2 billion smartphones will enter the market over the next five years and Morgan Stanley predicted that web browsing on mobile devices is likely to overtake desktops within the next couple years. Is your website keeping pace?

The iPad has revolutionized the financial services industry. Here's a deeper dive into some of the specific ways advisors and wealth managers can use the iPad to improve their business.

Seeking confidential access to brokers looking to make a transition, Securities America has signed a new agreement with online company Join A Firm that will cover costs for its branches to maintain profiles on the recruit-matching site.

Advisors who don't feel like wading through reports on 9,000 hedge funds may feel more comfortable scanning information on about 40, especially if those funds have been expertly screened. Envestnet has announced a hedge fund research alliance with Fund Evaluation Group.

LearnVest, a financial management website built as an electronic financial advisor for mass market investors, will announce Tuesday morning it is now a registered investment advisor and will be hiring more advisors in the coming months.

Forrester's new digital sales rakings laud the performance of Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Capital One, and say the new frontier of web sales calls for improvements in merchandising and onboarding.

Former E-Trade general counsel Russell Elmer has joined the Lending Club as the online lending platform's deputy general counsel.

The branchless bank is combining retail banking, retirement and insurance services in its online banking site.

Almost all the planners surveyed by Tiburon called the current technology offerings merely acceptable or downright unsatisfactory.

New software from Fiserv enables an independent advisor to create a detailed case to persuade a wary client.

When we began to redesign Financial-Planning.com earlier this year, we asked ourselves what do planners want most from our website? No surprise, we quickly realized, they want what we want: more vital content, enhanced functionality, better connections with the planning community and speed.

Improve your efforts to attract affluent clients through LinkedIn and Facebook (and not Twitter).

With a new head of research on board, Lipper announced a new set of initiatives for the second half of 2012 that involves building out research and analytical tools.

A new online company, FutureAdvisor, aims to break open the market for sophisticated financial advice and make that service available not only to the wealthy, but to all investors. Launched in 2010, the Seattle-based startup says it already analyzes $4 billion in assets for its users and, today, it announced $5 million in new venture capital funding. …

Raymond James is introducing software that brings clients into the planning process. "Planners usually tell me that working with clients is the best use of their time," Patrick O'Connor, senior vice president of wealth management solutions at Raymond James, said. "Instead of spending an hour-and-a-half preparing a plan and half an hour presenting it to clients, with this software an advisor might put in half an hour of prep work and take an hour-and-a-half developing the plan along with the client."