A vast proportion of the population has smartphones and the facilities capable on these mini-computers are growing exponentially.

Online banking is the norm for many people, and mobile banking is becoming acceptable for increasing numbers.

In the adviser world, technology is also having an increasing impact. Platforms have long been the norm for many an adviser; now the talk is of robo-advice.

Many feel automated advice of some sort is the answer to the advice gap created by the disappearance of the banks from offering advice and the move up the income scale by advisers.

But questions remain whether it will be as disruptive as some fear. Some would argue that robo-advice, or the use of algorithms to point rookie investors in the right direction, could threaten the livelihoods of financial advisers; others point out that a human is always needed somewhere in the chain, and that they could complement, rather than replace real financial advisers.

Smartphones are taking over in a different way. There are forecast to be 46.4m users in the UK by 2018 up from the 36.4m already owned in the latest figures available in 2014.

If there is anything consistent in the way technology changes, it is that it is changing rapidly, and what may seem like the dominant technology, and the company providing that technology an unassailable behemoth, can soon become outdated and overtaken.

So, technology companies meanwhile are chasing what they think might be the next big thing - currently virtual reality, while nervously looking over their shoulder for unexpected challengers coming out of nowhere.

These are the consequences of living in a digital age - the best chance of survival is to stay informed.

Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser