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Today marks the end of Stewart Ritchie’s service as director of pensions policy for Aegon UK and, with it, the curtain falls on the major contributors at one of the most exciting and challenging periods for UK pensions policy.

But, thankfully, it will be only the end of a phase in his eventful and extraordinary contribution to the growth of

public understanding of this complex and at times confusing subject as he does not plan to file away his actuarial sums just yet and will continue to make himself available to the industry for some time.

That we as journalists now understand a lot more about pensions than we did 10 years ago, is largely due to his work and that of his colleagues at Aegon and the Faculty of Actuaries.

Over that time, few have been as generous with their time and knowledge and as patient with the ramblings of ignorant journalists as Mr Ritchie.

For all those years Mr Ritchie has patiently talked new members of the Financial Adviser team – and other journalists – through the arcane world of retirement savings with patience and wisdom, as many of us stumbled through the minefield of pensions policy.

He can always be relied upon to get to the heart of the issue, and find a way of explaining the significance of the latest policy statement in an accessible and simple way.

He could always turn his hand to writing about any of the big issues that came his way and would produce well-written copy on time without any problems.

Many journalists will find a big gap in their contacts as Mr Ritchie becomes less available as a source of knowledge after his departure because, as a pensions guru with a precise answer on anything that comes out of government, he has been difficult to beat.