Marcus, thought provoking piece however I take a contrary view. I am a certified financial planner and have long believed that financial planners who hold themselves out to be investment managers are in fact kidding themselves. We do not have the expertise nor the time to do it well enough to beat the large investment houses. Rather my value and time is best spent working with clients on their decision making and goal setting. You call that fairy dust, but i have seen first hand how devastating poor decision making can be. Switching investment options during volatile markets, bad debt and investment decisions, poor career choices, dependents requiring support are all events which greatly impact a client's financial situation. Helping a client with these issues will make a much more meaningful difference to the life (both financial and fulfillment wise) to a client, not trying to beat a bench mark by 50 basis points which many planners simply cant do over the long term anyhow.
Digital disruption will target the bits that we do poorly and inefficiently, being portfolio management, cashflow modelling and tax minimization. If we adopt this technology this enables us to spend the time with clients where it matters, on the issues that they are genuinely concerned about. Our clients come to us with life problems and goals, and for too long we have reduced these issues to dot points in an SOA that have a monetary value. Much like a GP needs to consider the range of factors that could impact their patient's health, we must also take a more holistic approach to advice.
my 2 cents.

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