He spoke about global trends in adviser technology at the IFA/PAA joint conference last week.

Logan said advisers could not ignore the prospect of robotic competition. “Wealth management and the advice industry is ripe for disruption in the same way that iTunes and Uber have disrupted their industries.”

There is US$15 billion invested through roboadvice but that is predicted toincrease to US$255 billion in the next five years.

Many offerings promote their low fees. Most charge between 0.15% and 0.35% of client FUM.

Logan said technology was shifting advice from the traditional, delegated model where an adviser had the monopoly on information, to a model where they would act as a coach for clients.

Advisers could face challenges from a rise in “investor communities” as roboadvice took hold,  where clients could trade opinions, predictions and advice with their peers.

Roboadvice algorithms would develop quickly. “They are in their infancy but are going to scale quicker than Google’s. We’re hearing about algorithms that predict behaviour based on what other clients do. If a client panics [in a downturn] and wants to rebalance it will come back and say ‘last time you did that, this happened… other people are doing something different’.”

He said some advisers would be more affected by roboadvice than others. Those who did not offer much beyond asset allocation might find it hard to prove their value proposition, especially to clients who were naturally more interested in taking a DIY approach.

“Roboadvisers are coming and they’re going to impact some of your businesses and clients,” Logan said.

A roboadvice offering was developed in IRESS’ latest annual hackathon, a collaboration between its teams worldwide to come up with new ideas.

Logan said it was designed to run on top of IRESS’ existing software and push business back to advisers, generating referrals as clients chose products and services. “Clients who want to validate that [robo] advice will contact an adviser and say ‘am I making the right decision?’”