This market from my experience is extremely unhappy with radical change so maybe its best to approach from a UX standpoint and then follow that up with excellent visual design to communicate your messages. I think clearly defined hierarchy, color choice, etc. will go a very long way. Might also be worth doing some paper prototyping and alt wire frames that will help you understand the user journey when navigating this product. Seems like an exciting project, I would love to work on something like this!