The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has elected Hymans Robertson equity partner and scheme actuary, Patrick Bloomfield as its new chair.

He will take office from 1 June, and succeeds Mercer chief actuarial officer, Jenny Condron, who became the first woman to hold the role in 2018.

Bloomfield has laid out a four point two-year strategy for the association, adding however, that the ACA’s “single goal” will be for the UK’s policy response to Covid-19 to “help deliver an intergenerationally coherent UK saving strategy”.

He outlined four key areas of focus for the ACA, these were: achieving adequate savings; taxation and products; balancing costs between current workers’ and previous workers’ pensions; and tackling climate risk through the way savings are invested.

Focusing on the ongoing challenges presented by Covid-19, Bloomfield's plan has a particular emphasis on intergenerational cohesion and simplification.

Highlighting how Covid-19 has “laid bare” successive government’s policy inaction on later life social care costs, he emphasised that individuals need a better understanding of the costs of a good retirement in order to plan for it financially, and ensure adequate savings.

Bloomfield stressed the need to support workers in balancing today’s living costs and savings for their future, calling on the government to act upon recommendations outlined in the latest government auto enrolment review.

The delivery of the pensions dashboard was also highlighted as a key step in improving information accessibility.

Meanwhile in relation to taxation and products, Bloomfield emphasised that any post Covid-19 recovery will likely see "old questions" on pension taxation resurface.

He stated: "The ACA’s message is simple: we need a simple, intergenerationally fair tax system.

"Failure to save today leads to costs for future generations, so short-term cuts to tax incentives to save help nobody."

Calling on the government to take the opportunity to "simplify our outrageously complex pensions tax system", he emphasised the need to embrace short term saving alongside longer term savings, in order to create a intergernerationally coherent strategy.

He also called on The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to deliver greater simplicity when considering how best to balance costs between current workers’ and previous workers’ pensions, highlighting its new code of practice for funding DB schemes as a crucial vehicle for this.

Bloomfield stated that the updated code "must deliver simplicity for small schemes", as well as flexibility for larger schemes.

“Most importantly," he continued, "it needs to balance costs of funding pensions with businesses recovering from Covid-19. If DB costs are too high, the first thing to suffer will be the amount employers can save for today’s workers’ pensions."

Indeed, whilst there is still much uncertainty as to what a economic recovery could look like, Bloomfield stressed the need for TPR to deliver a funding code with "room to evolve as circumstances require".

He continued: “Actuaries acknowledge that DB scheme funding should gradually improve as scheme members retire.

“Meeting this cost too quickly will lead to systemic risks today. Meeting this cost too slowly will lead to systemic risks tomorrow. Maintaining balance has to be our collective goal.

Finally, in relation to the climate risk, described as an “existential threat to us all”, Bloomfield emphasised the “unique role” that actuaries will play, as professionals specialising in long-term risk and with oversight of “trillions of pounds of long-term savings”.

“We will be actively working to make climate risks transparent,” he explained, “enabling investors to save in the socially responsible ways they want to. We will work with government to encourage policies that align economic recovery with a green future.”

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