Last week saw us pass the somewhat arbitrary milestone of 100 days since the introduction of the freedoms, and providers and commentators rushed to give their take on the story so far.
There have been around 257,000 transactions, according to figures from the Association of British Insurers released last week, with a total of more than £1.8bn withdrawn.
In addition, £630m worth of annuities were purchased across three months – around one-sixth of the 2012 peak – while £720m worth of drawdown policies were bought.
But the debate over access and exit charges is still very much live, and the ABI has launched a joint taskforce with other departments across the industry.
And while the Treasury will be taking a good hard look at the issue of exit fees, capacity and confidence in the adviser world is less likely to be fixed quickly with a new policy or cap.
At an NAPF trustee briefing on derisking last week, one attendee explained how one of his scheme members was quoted an advice fee of £7,000 on a £32,000 pot.
Illustration by Ben Jennings
Now I know some advisers are saying they’re upping their prices to account for the uncertainty surrounding the freedoms – ‘danger money’ if you like, in case of any comeback further down the line – but that seems a bit steep.
As well as making the freedoms work for members, many schemes will be looking to the policy to deliver a kind of natural atrophy of their liabilities as members transfer out.
However if the advice barrier persists, those schemes’ best course of action might be to implement some sort of derisking incentive exercise themselves.
In that scenario it is the employer that bears the cost of advice, making any transfer that much more palatable – and affordable – for members.
We’ll be taking our usual summer print break from here, resuming on August 31.
However, we’ll still be very active online with the latest industry news, blogs and comment pieces – which is just as well, because I’ve a feeling the ‘summer slowdown’ might not be so quiet this year.
Maxine Kelly is editor at Pensions Expert. You can follow her on Twitter @MaxineEK and the team @pensions_expert
