Retirement saving is being brought into the 21st century with the announcement that from next year, you will be able to buy a pension entirely online.
This will cut out a lot of the paperwork and should mean lower charges, as there will be no need for documents to be sent off in the post. And some experts say it won't be long before people are able to use the net to track their pension's performance.
The "e-pension" is just one of a package of measures announced by the government this week which slots the final pieces into the stakeholder pension jigsaw.
Stakeholder pensions have been described as a much more user-friendly version of personal pensions and will be available from April next year. The government is promising they will be simple to understand, good value and flexible.
Millions of people now excluded from taking out a personal pension - such as those taking career breaks, mature students and carers - will be able to buy a stakeholder plan and benefit from the tax relief they will attract. You will be able to start one up for as little as £20 and the maximum a company will be able to charge for managing the funds is 1% a year.
Labour has been talking about stakeholder pensions since it was in opposition but the details and rules have been confirmed only this week.
The announcement came hot on the heels of a MORI survey that will make depressing reading for the government: it found that 75% of people said they had either not heard of stakeholder pensions, or knew nothing about them. More worryingly, almost as many (74%) believe they will be financially secure in retirement, even though almost half are relying on the state pension alone, says benefits consultancy Towers Perrin, which commissioned the research.
On Wednesday a report will be published calling for an end to people who retire being forced to buy an annuity with their pension fund. The Retirement Income Working Party, made up of representatives from insurance and investment companies, and academics, will recommend that people should have a lot more choice about how they take their retirement income.
Allowing electronic applications for stakeholder pensions is definitely a step forward. At the moment, the information needed to open a personal pension has to be provided in paper form, and companies have to send back written confirmation.
Some of the websites up and running have cut out some of the paperwork, allowing people to fill in their details on screen. However, they still have to print the form off, sign it and post it to the company. But from April next year, information can be provided over the phone, by email or via the net, says the department of social security. The firm will still have to send out confirmation of the details to the customer, but this could be via email.
This will bring pensions in line with individual savings accounts, which can already be bought entirely online from some companies.
But experts are warning that a number of the other details that emerged this week are not so positive.
There has been a lot of debate about whether the millions of people in company pension schemes should be allowed to pay into a stakeholder pension too. Ministers have decided that higher earners in "final salary" company schemes definitely won't be able to boost their retirement savings in this way, and lower and middle earners may be barred too.
Another blow is the scrapping of the "carry forward" rule which lets people make additional pension contributions to make up for low contributions in previous years. The self-employed will be hardest-hit by this because their incomes often fluctuate and they tend to want to catch up on pension contributions when their earnings permit it, says John Glendinning at Scottish Amicable.
Thomas McPhail at independent financial adviser Torquil Clark, says what we are seeing on stakeholder pensions suggests it is only a matter of time before the government abolishes higher rate tax relief on pension contributions - a move that would prove hugely controversial.
