For the past three years the UK retail funds industry has been dreaming of a huge, untapped market of millions of new consumers, all being encouraged to save and invest by their bosses. But it has been slow to arrive.

Now George Osborne's revolutionary reforms of the pensions market, which from April 2015 will free people to spend their pension savings as they wish rather than having to buy an annuity, are reviving hopes that the dream might finally come true. Others, however, remain highly sceptical.