Third pillar of the pension system in Poland

The purpose of the article is to present a proposal for supplementing the existing pillar of voluntary pension insurance so that it becomes an important contribution to increasing future retirement benefits. The article presents recommendations by OECD experts on how to construct a voluntary fully funded pillar of the pension system. It also demonstrates the ranking criteria for evaluating the existing pension systems. The author has described what he considers to be the most effective solutions for stimulating voluntary savings. The new proposed solution is based on the introduction of automatic participation of employees in a licensed retirement product. The State should support the development of such a product through a system of incentives with preferential treatment of average and lower earners. It is recommended to keep the existing reliefs applicable to individual IKE and IKZE products and to strengthen the incentives applicable to employee pension plans in favor of employees and employers. The key elements of the proposed solution are employers and universal pension fund companies (PTEs) managing voluntary pension funds. It is recommended to apply a tender mechanism to the automatic enrollment of employees in saving programs to improve the competitiveness of operation of the whole market.