VOLUNTARY PENSION FUNDS IN CROATIA: INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE AND INCENTIVES

Saving for the third age is extremely important in the conditions of an uncertainty in the global economy, unfavorable demographic trends and the related problem of fiscal imbalances. In order to improve the sustainability of the Croatian three-pillar pension system, there have been recent attempts to significantly increase the role of voluntary pension insurance and other forms of saving for the third age. The aim of such measures is to reduce the increasing dependence of pension beneficiaries on payments from the state budget and to achieve a more sustainable pension system. Measures to encourage voluntary saving in Croatia are the state incentives for the insured and the tax benefits for employers. Despite the numerous investment advantages and government incentives for this form of saving, voluntary pension funds in Croatia are still among the least developed institutional investors, considering the amount of assets and the number of members. The question arises as to the reasons for the relative disregard of these financial institutions and the low interest of the working population in Croatia. The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of voluntary pension funds and identify the reasons for the insufficient capitalised savings in the third pension pillar in Croatia