Tuleva is a mutual asset management company with the goal to grow our members’ assets, creating better investment opportunities for ourselves to save money in small increments over the long term.

As a first step, we started Tuleva`s II pillar pension funds. Next, we will create for our members a voluntary pension fund and will look for other sustainable and beneficial opportunities to save and invest money for the long term. At the same time,  we help to change the laws so that the Estonian pension system as a whole becomes more profitable for people saving for their retirement not for banks or insurance companies.

A commercial association is a business form like any other. The main difference between commercial associations and other forms of business is that in a commercial association every member has exactly one vote. In a public or private limited company the number of votes is dependent on the amount of shares you own.

In a commercial association no one has the option to buy up other people’s votes or gain control of the association in any other manner. Profit sharing is carried out based on how much a member contributes into the association, not on how many shares she owns.

The founders of Tuleva believed that this form of entrepreneurship best represents a company that unites thousands of people. We don’t have distant investors, but we are all managing our money together and we all have the right to speak up about how our assets are managed, no matter how big one’s income or how much money one has managed to save yet.

The members of Tuleva Commercial Association are the owners. The members elect a supervisory board, which appoints the management board. Every Tuleva member has one vote at the association general meeting.

Tuleva pension funds are managed by Tuleva Funds, which is owned by Tuleva Commercial Association.

Tuleva’s goal is to earn profit for its members.

If Tuleva earns a profit, then it will be divided between members based on the rules written in Tuleva’s Articles of Association – the way members have agreed to share the profit.

Firstly, each member will receive the membership bonus they have earned. The rest of the profit will be divided based on how much each member has contributed into the association’s capital.

Membership bonus is a bit like preferred stock dividend – it is paid to all members based on how much money they have transferred into Tuleva pension funds. A member’s capital share is dependent on how much money they contributed into the initial capital of the fund and how much membership bonus they have stacked up.

The founders of Tuleva are subject to the same rules of profit sharing as all other Tuleva members.

If a member wishes to leave the association, then the membership bonus and capital will be paid out to them.

If a member passes away, the membership capital will be paid out to their heirs.

Membership bonus is owner’s profit which is divided between each member who has transferred their second pillar assets into Tuleva pension funds. Membership bonus will be transferred to your capital account each year, which will increase your share in the association’s capital, which will earn additional profit.

At the end of the year:

1. We will calculate the value of units that a member had on average in Tuleva pension funds during the year
2. Multiply that number by 0.05% and transfer the relevant amount to their membership bonus account
3. Every 5 years we decide at our general meeting, whether to pay out the profits or keep the money invested

At this moment in time, Estonian laws do not allow commercial associations to manage investment funds (there is no real justification for this limit). Therefore we founded Tuleva Fondid AS, which is 100% owned by Tuleva Commercial Association. Based on Financial Inspection’s licence, Tuleva Fondid AS manages Tuleva World Stocks Pension Fund and Tuleva World Bonds Pension Fund.

You do not have to be a member of Tuleva to invest in Tuleva pension funds, but as a member you gain maximum benefit from Tuleva. As a member you are not only the client of your own pension fund, but also a co-owner.

We, members of Tuleva:

• Earn a membership bonus every year from the fund management fee, which earns us extra money for our retirement
• Help to change Estonian laws and regulations so that they benefit pension savers, not only banks and insurance companies
• Decide over future developments in Tuleva: every member has one vote

Every member has the right to:

• Have access to important documentation pertaining to all activities of the association
• Participate in the general assembly and other Tuleva events
• Elect Tuleva management and apply for management positions
• Participate in Tuleva’s profit sharing based on predetermined rules
• Use Tuleva’s services and participate in members’ information sharing (for example via e-mail or in our closed Facebook group)
• Leave the association (after 5 years of membership have passed)
• Leave their assets as an inheritance to their designated heir

Every member has the obligation to:

• Comply with laws and follow the decisions made by Tuleva’s managerial board
• Pay a one-time membership fee
• Keep Tuleva’s business secrets
• Pay additional fees if decided so by the general assembly*

*This obligation has been included in our articles of association in the unlikely event that Tuleva has an unexpected need for additional capital. If a member refuses to pay additional fees which have been decided upon by the general assembly, they will lose their membership status.

Membership fees are used to develop our association and to stand up for the rights of our members. From the fees paid by our first members, we made the necessary expenses to raise the fund’s initial capital, introduce Tuleva to the general public and prepare everything to get our pension fund started, including applying for an activity license from the Financial Inspection. From here on, membership fees will be used for the following activities:

• Membership community management and communication
• Development of Tuleva’s web page, blog and other information channels
• Preparation of ideas and influence analysis to improve the Estonian pension system in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and other state organisations
• Development of Tuleva’s IT systems
• Preparation and analysis of voluntary savings products and third pillar options

Yes, you can. We have members who support Tuleva’s goals and wished to help us reach them by paying the membership fee.

However, Tuleva was mainly established for people who are invested or plan to invest in second and third pillar pension funds and who plan to migrate their retirement plans over to Tuleva funds in future.

If you don’t plan to invest in the second or third pillar, or at least if you don’t plan to do so through Tuleva’s funds, Tuleva’s management can revoke your membership in the future as the organization is ultimately meant for people who want a mutual plan for growing their retirement nest egg.

Joining Tuleva is thus beneficial to you and generally a good idea only if you have invested or plan to invest in second and third pillar pension funds. But some of our members are just people who want to do their part to make Tuleva a success.

If you choose Tuleva’s pension funds you will become Tuleva’s client. If you also become a member of Tuleva, you will become a co-owner of Tuleva. Tuleva is a commercial association, which is owned by Tuleva members. We started Tuleva Fondid AS, which manages Tuleva pension funds. All Estonian people can become clients of Tuleva pension funds, you do not have to be a member to do so.

To become a client of Tuleva’s pension funds, you do not have to pay anything – you will instead instantly start to save money due to low management fees. It only takes 5 minutes to switch funds in your internet bank.

To become a member of Tuleva, you have to pay a one time membership fee (125 euros). Every member has paid a membership fee – this is every owner’s contribution to help develop our jointly owned association. The membership fee is one time only – there are no additional fees later on.

The overarching idea of Tuleva is to bring people together to save money for their future, leaving out as many middlemen and unnecessary fees as possible. The more members there are, the cheaper it will be for us all to invest together using modern technological tools.

1. By becoming a member you help fill our goals

Firstly, we plan to create voluntary savings products and other investment instruments to save money for the future.

Secondly, we will keep on fighting to make the Estonian pension system better for the people of Estonia, not just the banks or insurance companies. We will work together with the Ministry of Finance and citizen initiative project “Uue Eakuse Rahvakogu” helping to create better laws.

2. Members earn a profit

Every year we calculate a membership bonus for all members who have transferred their second pillar funds to Tuleva pension funds. The bonus will be transferred to every member’s personal capital account at Tuleva. This will increase their share in Tuleva’s capital and this share will earn an additional return. If Tuleva gets bigger, and the funds start to manage more money and we create more investment products, the association will earn a profit, which will be divided up between members based on predetermined rules. As always, the size of the profit depends on how well we do as a business. The founders of Tuleva are more than convinced that the one time fee of 100 euros to join will be more than compensated in future returns, but we are of course not making any promises.

Answers to your questions regarding Tuleva pension funds can be found here.