Tax-efficient decumulation - better than a pension?

For the high net worth individual needing retirement income, the old days of filling your pension arrangements to bursting and taking a huge pension are past. This is mainly because people are now only allowed to accumulate pensions savings at a maximum of £40,000 per year (ignoring carry forward) with tax relief and when they come to decumulate, anything over the lifetime allowance suffers punitive taxation (unless protection is in place). Added to that, we currently have rock-bottom yields for drawdown and annuity rates; with the income produced being taxed at a marginal rate of up to ...