The incoming chair of the Association of Consulting Actuaries has said that encouraging higher pension savings would be the next priority for the professional body.
David Fairs, a partner at KPMG, will take up chairmanship of the association on June 1, succeeding Barnett Waddingham partner Andrew Vaughan, who is approaching the end of his two-year term.
In his first statement, Fairs noted that the pension reforms in the March Budget had encouraged people to think more about their retirement arrangements. He said it was now beginning to dawn on many people that they were not saving enough to fund an adequate standard of living in their old age.
'This is an area where the ACA feels more needs to be done to encourage both employers and employees to act, hopefully encouraged by government,' Fairs said.
'The next year or so promises to be a very busy time again for both our members and the clients we serve across every size of business.'
Fairs, who had formerly chaired the Flexible Defined Benefit Industry Working Group as part of the DWP’s Defined Ambition initiative, said that the ACA was still waiting on further developments.
'It is hoped long-term reforms are not lost to short-term electoral calculations,' he added.
'And we hope we can expect further policy ideas from all sides as we approach the 2015 general election.'
He said he hoped that the policies that would emerge in anticipation of the election campaign would be positive in building on the wide provision that auto-enrolment is achieving and not to undermine progress by reducing tax reliefs that make pension saving worthwhile.
'As ever, the ACA under my chairmanship will continue to offer guidance to politicians and the government on both strategic matters and the fine detail of policy delivery, where we have been particular active in recent years,' Fairs said.
Fairs is an honorary treasurer of the ACA and a former member of the Society of Pension Consultants. He will continue in his role at KPMG alongside his ACA position.