Is this “the age of asset management?” asked Andy Haldane of the Bank of England in a speech last year. The question mark is increasingly redundant.

A host of demographic, financial and regulatory trends are boosting the size and influence of asset managers. The latest potential fillip came in the Budget with the proposed revolution in pension tax relief. This would shift Britain from a system where tax relief is received for payments into a pension to one where pots are filled from taxed income but are then free from tax, similar to Individual Savings Accounts.