NAPF becomes the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the trade body for UK pension funds, is to rebrand itself as the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

The organisation said the new identity was to reflect changes to retirement saving and workplace pensions and also to allow it to broaden its reach and influence. Joanne Segars, chief executive of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, made the announcement at the annual conference, held in Manchester this year. “Retirement simply doesn’t look like it used to – today people work later in life and they fund their retirement in all sorts of ways. The lines are blurring between work and retirement, between pensions and other forms of saving, and between scheme and saver responsibility,” Segars said.

She added: “This is the start of an exciting new period in our association’s history. Our depth of expertise and credibility has served our members well for over 90 years; and these same strengths allow us to respond positively to the immense changes we’ve seen in our sector in recent times. Our new identity has its roots in our heritage. We’ll still do what we’ve always done – help schemes help their members save confidently for retirement – but our new identity allows us to share our knowledge and expertise directly and readily with more schemes and more savers.”

The new name is part of a strategic plan for the association to speak for all of the workplace pension community and also lifetime savings by 2020. It cited recent changes such as the automatic enrolment requirements now affecting 1.8 million new small employers and the enrolment of 2.6 million people in master trusts in one year to March 2015. Another change is the range of savings and annuity products now on offer, as well as the mix of savings and pension vehicles in use. The association also pointed out that there is now £1.5 trillion in defined benefit plans which are to pay pensions for the next 20 to 30 years.