If financial advisors are serious about the long-term sustainability of their businesses, they’re going to need to begin the process of targeting younger, mass affluent clients rather than their aging affluent, baby boomer parents, suggested outspoken former government minister Garth Turner at the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners’ 13th annual symposium in Niagara Falls, Ont. on Friday.

Specifically, Turner, now senior vice president and a financial advisor with Toronto-based Turner Investments, which operates under the Raymond James Ltd. umbrella, says affluent baby boomers, who are the preferred client base for many advisors, are now entering retirement. As a result, this will stifle the long-term growth potential of many financial advisory businesses.

Instead, the majority (66%) of the working population consists of individuals who belong to Generation X or the millennial generation, he said, and they are now entering their peak income-earning and investment years.

“The future of this business is no longer the old and affluent. Get over it,” said Turner, who runs a fee-based practice. “It is the young and mass affluent, and that’s what you need to know.”

This is a big reason why established, U.S. asset-management firms have been scooping up robo-advisor services, Turner argues, referring to New York-based BlackRock Inc.’s acquisition of San Francisco-based robo-service FutureAdvisor in August and Boston-based FMR LLC’s (a.k.a. Fidelity Investments) purchased New York-based Betterment LLC in 2014.

Robo-advisors generally target the mass affluent, which Turner defined as households with an annual income of $75,000 a year and investible assets of approximately $100,000.

In addition, millennials are cynical about the financial services industry and its professionals because many witnessed their parents’ financial losses during the worldwide financial crisis of 2008-09, he said. This is also one of the reasons why this generation would rather trust technology than human advisors, he added.

“This is why the robo-advisor business has legs,” Turner said. “In fact, it seems perfect for people who would put their faith into an algorithm far sooner than they would into a 50-year-old advisor who sold their dad a Canadian equity fund with a 2% [management expense ratio] in the summer of 2008.”

So, in order for advisors to win over this generation, they are going to have to become more familiar with technology, especially social media, Turner recommends. Specifically, advisors must be free to communicate effectively and frequently with clients through social media, as it is a way to develop trust with the cynical millennial generation.

“Either we go talk to people when they’re listening or we face a shrinking future,” he said.