National Association Of Pension Funds
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The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (formerly the National Association of Pension Funds) is a
trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...
for those involved in designing, operating, advising and investing in all aspects of workplace
pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
s. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association represents 1,300 pension funds which together provide pensions for 22 million people and have more than £1000 billion of assets. Members' pension schemes include defined benefit, defined contribution, group personal pensions and statutory schemes such as those in local government. The Association's membership also includes 400 businesses that provide services to pension funds. These include investment managers, law firms, actuarial consultancies and administrators. Describing itself as the voice of its members "with government, Parliament and regulators", it aims to help pension professionals run better pension schemes, and to advocate for regulation and policies that it considers in the interest of its membership and the industry. It also provides events, training and publications, and works to raise standards in the pensions industry.


Role

The association promotes the interests of pension funds by lobbying government and regulators (such as
the Pensions Regulator The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is a non-departmental public body which regulates work-based pension schemes in the United Kingdom. Created under the Pensions Act 2004, the regulator replaced the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) fro ...
, the
Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...
and EU institutions). It undertakes various research projects covering different aspects of pensions including the size and structure of UK defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, trends in
longevity The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...
and the changing nature of retirement. Membership of the Association is open to any organisation providing any form of retirement provision for employees and to those providing professional advice and services to pension schemes. It hosts a number of seminars and conferences throughout the year which aim to keep members up-to-date with developments in the pensions industry. The PLSA also provides various training for members through its training Academy and policy-related ‘teach-in’ events.


Governance

The Association is a
not for profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organisation run by the association's Board . The Chair of the Board is Richard Butcher, Managing Director at PTL, where he acts as a non-executive director to pension and investment related entities and professional trustee as well as managing a team of other people doing the same. He has held a non-executive directorship role at the Association since 2013 and chaired its former Defined Contribution Council. The Chief Executive of the Association is Julian Mund, who joined the PLSA as Commercial Services Director at the end of September 2013. The Policy Board, created in October 2018 following a review of the PLSA's governance arrangements, is the Association's main policy-making body. It is made up of 17 appointed members and meets around three times a year to debate key issues.


Events

The PLSA's Annual Conference and Exhibition is held in October and alternates between the
ACC Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, also known as simply ACC Liverpool is a multi-purpose event complex on the former Kings Dock, Liverpool, England. Opened in May 2008, it is part of Liverpool event campus, consisting of an interconnected ...
and Manchester Central, attracting around 1500 attendees. Speakers come primarily from the UK and European government, the pensions and investment industries and relevant areas of economics and science.
Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...
gave the keynote speech at the Annual Conference and Exhibition in Liverpool in 2014 and
Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Beginning his career as a political commentator, he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 1998 and was political editor of BBC N ...
appeared in 2018. The government and shadow ministers with pension remits frequently appear. The annual calendar of events also includes: * Investment Conference, held at the EICC in Edinburgh in March * Local Authority Conference, held in the Cotswolds in May * Trustee Conference, held in London in December. Speakers at these events have included former UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
,
BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...
founder
Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the w ...
,
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
and the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
.


Subsidiaries

The Pension Quality Mark (PQM) is a standard awarded to defined contribution pension schemes that meet certain criteria, including governance, communications and contribution levels. Over 200 pension schemes have achieved either PQM or PQM PLUS standard. Over 400,000 employees are actively saving in these arrangements. The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP) is an infrastructure investment vehicle established by the NAPF, the Pension Protection Fund and a group of large UK pension funds investment to encourage and facilitate UK pension scheme investment into UK infrastructure. In February 2014 PiP launched its first fund, the £600m PPP Equity PIP LP, which is managed by Dalmore Capital Ltd.


References


External links

* Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA)
Pension Quality Mark (PQM)

PensionsEurope


News items


Review body in March 2010

New taxes in February 2010
{{Authority control Pensions in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1923 Organisations based in the City of London Non-profit organisations based in the United Kingdom 1923 establishments in the United Kingdom