I spend a lot of my working life in planes, trains and automobiles and what appears to be even more time in airport security queues, waiting at overcrowded boarding gates and platforms and stuck in endless traffic jams. 

Anyone who thinks regular business travel is in the slightest bit glamourous has obviously never had to do it. There is one upside to all of this, however, and that is you get plenty of time to gather your thoughts, reflect on what is happening and consider the various problems you have recently encountered. Time you rarely get when in the office or at home.
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Last week, whilst waiting for a flight, the departure of which was getting later and later, I was thinking of the challenges the Sipp, SSAS and platform markets face in the first quarter of next year. The new flexibility on how pension benefits can be taken is without doubt a great opportunity and, though I never thought I would say this, it brings a degree of excitement to pensions. Since the first details were announced in March and the subsequent tranches of further details pronounced thereafter there has been a real buzz and pensions have become a hot subject in the national press and amazingly in day to day conversations. But has the flexibility been oversold?
So what started me on this train of thought? On my taxi ride to the airport I had made the fatal error of responding to the driver's question of what I did for a living. As soon as I mentioned pensions he was keen to seek clarification on how he could access his own pension. He had already planned out what he was going to spend the money on. Fortunately the conversation was all one way, he was a deferred member of a defined benefit scheme, he would 'encash' that, after all in the press that day he had read that it would be possible to access your pension at a cash point come next April. Mercifully the journey was short so I had no time to quash his enthusiasm.
The challenges ahead for those who will be providing flexible access drawdown for 6 April 2015 is massive. Tasks such as reviewing scheme rules, staff training, changes to processes and systems all have to be done in a very limited time. So though the basic functionality will be delivered on time the idea of accessing funds directly from a cashpoint will be a long time off, if ever. Then there is the toxic issue of advising on the transfer of a defined benefit scheme. How many situations will there be where a financial adviser will be able to recommend such a transfer is in the client's best interests? Not many I would think, and without such a recommendation how many pension providers will accept such a transfer?
There may be a number of disappointed individuals who may have to change their spending plans. That said I have since had a text from a supposed 'government backed advice scheme' offering to arrange access to my defined benefit pension. That is another can of worms and I will not be forwarding the details on to the taxi driver.