Sometimes two parties locked in debate speak too loudly to notice what’s already changing.

In the debate about a fiduciary standard in the retirement industry and how much the government should play a role, a solution may already exist: new digital advice technology platforms. These innovations could improve retirement participant outcomes, increase transparency, expand access to advice and drive down the cost of retirement planning. In other words, as the market develops, it will naturally address the issues that regulators are attempting to resolve.

No matter what the government does, markets are evolving. Retirement plan participants want, and increasingly expect, more objectivity from advice givers when it comes to their investments.

Existing technology mainly serves the needs of high-net-worth investors, but emerging technologies will improve services for everyone. This technology personalizes and automates advice for both large and small participants with tools such as data-driven account aggregation, savings advice, personalized savings and retirement income forecasts, as well as automated portfolio management.

If the government was to get involved by regulating who is and who isn’t a fiduciary, the argument goes, it could limit the quality or the reach of advice. But technology offers a solution for that. New platforms can allow advisors to use both the technology and their expertise together to scale their value and improve their margins, offering high-quality and efficient advisory services to more participants.

In addition, these innovations give the industry better ways to measure the impact of plan programs, investor behavior and advisor interaction. This creates a natural evolution within the industry focused on continually improving solutions for all investors.

Industry groups have suggested that proposed government regulations on advisors’ fiduciary duties will drive advice costs higher for retirement plans and be burdensome (limiting the ability to do IRA rollovers, for example). These predictions may be accurate in the near term. But technology could dramatically reduce the cost of advice over time.

Some may believe the government is overreaching by demanding that retirement plan providers act as fiduciaries, but it’s important to remember that holding defined contribution providers to that standard is a positive step—because it benefits retirement savers over the long term. It’s important to strike the right balance, however, and the industry must be allowed to improve and provide broad advice access to the retirement market. These goals could be easily achieved through the ongoing innovation and implementation of retirement technology platforms.

The evolution of technology has created a number of new opportunities for advisors and clients in the retirement industry. Specifically, technology creates efficiencies in the planning and managing aspects of retirement advising that will directly facilitate the fiduciary standard.

Firstly, software optimizes advice by automating the planning and investing process for a plan participant. Software can gather all the relevant personal and financial information necessary to create a personalized recommendation for each individual. This includes aggregating financial accounts, contribution rates, tax types, age and marital status, among other bits of information, to create a holistic understanding of each individual.

Furthermore, financial software provides the ability to build and invest in a personalized portfolio for each individual based on the investments available in their plan. The automation made possible by software provides a scalable solution for advisors, allowing them, ultimately, to advise more clients.

Additionally, software plays a vital role in the ongoing solution for the client. The key for retirement investing is not simply what’s in the best interest of the client at the time of enrollment, but what’s in his or her best interest on an ongoing basis. To that end, technology can perform portfolio rebalancing along the investment horizon of an individual, easily update savings rates and execute any other changes to the clients’ retirement plan.

Finally, new technology provides scalable control for advisors. From a regulatory perspective, auditing capabilities provided by new financial software allows advisors to create reports that document advice provided at any point in time, as well as give the reasons it was provided. Ultimately, the consistent process for the way advisors are able to plan, dispense and update investment advice with new technology creates numerous efficiencies that will enable them to grow their client base while providing more personalized, holistic advice.

The new category of digital advice companies is paving the way for an era of innovative solutions in the asset management industry. Through the power and scalability of software, it is now possible for every individual to receive a truly personalized financial plan and portfolio at roughly the same cost as investing in a target-date mutual fund. That is a quantum leap forward in the democratization of the asset management industry and a big disruption in the making.

Dirk Quayle, has been President of NextCapital for 15 years, working with large retirement plan providers and asset managers to develop and deploy personalized investment strategies and outcomes for investors. Previously, Dirk was a director at Deutsche Bank Securities. He has a BBA in finance from the University of Iowa and is a CFA.