So far, 60,000 people have accessed their savings, releasing more than £1bn, according to government figures.

This is all good news for the Treasury, which is expecting a nice tax take from the process.

Other issues are also emerging, which show that in some quarters there are teething problems.

Many people who are trying to access their funds are finding they are being hit with huge exit penalties if they want to access their fund early.

The problem is that many of these funds were structured to pay out in 15 or 20 years time, and not designed to pay out early. To counter this challenge, providers are asking for large fees to pay for it.

The chancellor George Osborne has said he will now consult on the process, to see if companies are asking for too much.

But the new regime has galvanised the industry into rethinking retirement income and how people pay for their old age. For years, providers have been lulled into offering a range of underperforming annuities, which most people automatically chose without doing much thinking.

Now the power is with consumers, who have been told they can shop around and devise any kind of product combination they so choose – even to take it all as cash. This has focused the industry’s minds into coming up with a more flexible, open and perhaps fairer way of providing retirement income.

Hal Austin is editor of Financial Adviser