“We’ve all been trained well in technical skills,” Diliberto said. “Think about what it is that we do that can become a commodity. We do tax planning, estate planning, investment advice and insurance – and all of these things are easily commoditized, that’s going to put us in danger if that is all we do -- however, wisdom can never be commoditized, and that’s what we offer our clients. That’s the interior of what we do.”

Generation Y is also forcing a major shift in technology, said Trent Witthoeft, vice president of technology consulting at Fidelity Investments.

“Technology is going to force us to be more efficient,” Witthoeft said. “I think it’s going to change the way clients will demand their advisors interact with them. The robos are doing a good job of taking some newer technology and putting it at the forefront of their value proposition. What that means for us is that clients are going to like some of these things and are going to demand it of us.”

But embracing technology also exposes RIAs to new risks, like hackers, said Tom Moore, chief information officer at Cincinnati-based Formidable Asset Management.

“In July 2015, there were 74 cyberattacks tracked in 20-plus categories, with individual targets ranked seventh, and financial targets ranked eighth,” Moore said. “Everybody in this room is a member of the seventh and the eighth most-common threat categories that are actively being targeted by hackers every day.”

Amidst the demographic and technological revolutions pressuring financial services, market uncertainty is driving interest in alternative investment products, said Brody Browe, executive director of Philadelphia-based Franklin Square Capital Partners.