I recently came across an article that talked about how the TV show Star Trek predicted the future. From tablets to wireless headsets to flatscreen TVs, the futuristic imaginations of the 1960s sci-fi drama came true just a few decades later.

The article was a stark reminder to me how far technology has come. When I graduated high school, I hadn’t even heard of “the Internet.” I didn’t send my first email until I was in college. Nowadays I send and receive hundreds of emails a month, and I don’t even give it a second thought, but back then I thought email was amazing.

Evolving Technology

Indeed, technology has changed so much and so quickly in recent years that if we don’t think about it, we may not even remember how things were different just five or 10 years ago. It really wasn’t that long ago that the likes of IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Intel (NSDQ: INTC) were the leaders in tech. Now, because they were slow to adapt, they have turned from innovators to dinosaurs.

In business, changes are happening all the time, especially in information technology. As investors, we want to be on constant alert for changing trends. Investors who saw the opportunities early on in Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Alphabet’s (NSDQ: GOOGL) Google are grinning from ear to ear.

Today, some of the buzz words include 5G, Internet of Things, electrification, and artificial intelligence. These are all exciting areas of future innovation that could greatly change the way we live… one day. While we have already seen bits and pieces of what these technologies can offer, we have barely scratched the surface. We are still years away from truly experiencing what the technologies can offer at their fullest potential.

Innovation doesn’t have to be as flashy as self-driving vehicles or autonomous robots. It can be much more subtle. For example, advances have occurred in one area that you may not even know. It’s called “fintech” (financial technology).

Subtle But Ubiquitous

The term fintech is actually quite broad. Any technology that helps financial institutions deliver financial services is considered fintech. The next time you pull up your account balance on your mobile phone, you are using fintech. When you follow your real-time portfolio performance on your phone, that’s fintech. When you execute a trade on a mobile app and you get an instant email and text alert of the transaction, that’s fintech.

Another example: if you have Apple Pay or another contactless payment app, you can just tap your phone on a scanner to pay. No need to even take your credit card out of the wallet.

These are functions that we take for granted, but without technological advances in recent years, we would not be able to do these things. Today, with a smartphone, the power to manage your finances instantly is literally at your fingertips.

I have only cited some examples of common everyday usage. In reality fintech encompasses a lot more. Other examples include cryptocurrencies and blockchain, peer-to-peer lending, and automated loan and insurance applications. Innovative companies are finding ways to streamline and deliver services beyond the traditional channels (e.g., banks).

Re-imagining Banking

Banking is a lucrative business. The larger ones earn billions of dollars in profits a year. That’s why the sector has attracted newcomers and traditionally non-financial companies like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Amazon to try to find new and better ways to do old business so they can grab a piece of that enormous pie.

Just as there are investment opportunities in 5G and the Internet of Things, there are opportunities in the evolution of fintech. You just need to know where to look.

And that’s where my colleague Jim Pearce comes in. As chief investment strategist of Personal Finance, Jim is alerting his followers to an unstoppable mega-trend in the financial services industry that transcends the ups and downs of the broader stock market.

Jim has pinpointed a leading-edge technology that will change the way everyone does banking. It’s nothing less than a financial revolution. To profit from this fintech windfall, click here for our special report.