Applying for “individual protection 2016” also gives a lifetime allowance of £1.25m. Savers are eligible for this provided that all pensions added together came to a value of at least £1m on April 5 2016. 

The lifetime allowance does not apply after the age of 75, so if a pension is below the lifetime allowance when someone reaches this age and they have not taken any money from it, it can stay invested and continue to grow.

Tilney said: “As the pension will not be tested [against the allowance] again, the overall value can go over the allowance without any tax penalties being applied. This is particularly useful if someone has other sources of income they can live on or are thinking of passing on the pension after they die.”

I have an exciting stock tip. What do you think?

David Henry of wealth manager Quilter Cheviot said it was common for clients to come to the firm with hot stock tips, but the best thing to do was ignore them and stick to a professionally managed portfolio.

“I have seen people become ‘financial magpies’– disregarding the boring basics of their financial plan and spending their energy chasing quick investment returns instead. Ask yourself, why am I hearing about this investment?  Chances are that, by the time the investment opportunity has reached you, it may not be as exciting as it first appeared,” said Mr Henry.

Quilter said that rather than trying to chase big returns from individual companies, the best way for someone to achieve financial independence was to save each month, not spend beyond their means and invest money that is not needed today. Patience is also vital, he added.

I am going to buy a property in the next couple of years. Should I leave the deposit in cash? 

Interest rates have been falling for the past decade and as a consequence people are seeking ways to make their cash work harder for them. But there is no “silver bullet” solution, said Mr Henry.

“It is bad practice to take excessive risk with money that you might need within the next couple of years. In previous decades one may have been able to park money for a couple of years in bonds that provided a higher interest rate than cash. However, that option is no longer particularly viable without perhaps lending to companies with lower credit ratings, which is naturally riskier,” he said.

The best thing to do is to leave the required money in cash, despite it losing value in real terms. 

“A lot of good financial practice is about avoiding needless unforced errors, rather than hitting the absolute optimum solution every time. The correct but potentially boring answer is to leave money that you have earmarked for expenditure within the next couple of years in cash,” Mr Henry said