Everyone benefits from Tuleva, but only members earn a membership bonus, which increases their share in the membership capital of our joint company.
PS! This article was first written in March 2019 and last updated on 30 March 2026.
Who are Tuleva members and what are their rights?
When you save for your pension with Tuleva, you’re part of our community. Everyone in Estonia can save with Tuleva, and membership isn’t required. Today, more than 84,000 people already save with Tuleva.
When you become a member of Tuleva, you’ll be one of Tuleva’s 9,550 co-owners. Tuleva is a cooperative, i.e. a company whose purpose is to support its members’ economic interests through joint economic activity. We help people build their future capital with confidence by saving regularly and with little effort.
But on top of that, members have some additional rights.
Members earn a membership bonus
Every year, while saving with Tuleva, members earn a membership bonus worth 0.05% of the value of their pension assets. How is it calculated?
At the end of the year, we calculate how many Tuleva pension fund units each Tuleva member held on average during the year. We multiply the value of the units by 0.05% and transfer the resulting amount to the member’s personal capital account with the Tuleva cooperative. So the membership bonus starts out quite small but grows as your pension assets grow. What you’ve earned doesn’t just sit in your account as cash. It’s a share in our joint business, which means it earns an investment return too.
The membership bonus is not a discount or a separate perk. It’s a part of Tuleva’s profit that we share among the members of our cooperative according to their contribution, i.e. the size of their pension assets in our funds.
How can I check the size of my membership bonus?
Log in to your account in the Tuleva app and scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a section called “Member capital”.
You can see your membership capital by logging in to the Tuleva app. A member’s share in Tuleva’s membership capital can come from three sources:
- a voluntary cash contribution the member made in 2016 and/or 2019 to launch Tuleva’s funds;
- accumulated membership bonus, which every member earns each year at 0.05% of the value of their pension assets saved with Tuleva;
- a work contribution (for Tuleva employees and service providers, under an option agreement).
What do I get from the membership bonus?
The membership bonus is a part of Tuleva’s membership capital and entitles you to a share of Tuleva’s profits. All Tuleva members together currently hold nearly €12 million in membership capital. This means that if your total membership capital is, say, €1,200, you’re entitled to 0.01% of Tuleva’s profits. Tuleva’s membership capital changes over time, as membership bonuses are earned continuously.
So far, Tuleva has not paid out profits. Under the articles of association, we decide on dividend payments at the end of each five-year period. In 2022, no dividends were paid out; instead, they were reinvested as we focused on lowering fees and bringing new savers into index funds. The next time we’ll decide together whether to pay dividends will be in 2027.
In addition, when members leave the Tuleva cooperative (i.e. terminate their membership), we pay them the book value of their share. However, it’s clear that Tuleva is worth more than just the book value of the share. As Tuleva has grown, so has its value. Together, we don’t just own nearly €12 million worth of capital, but also a fast-growing company with more than 84,000 savers.
How can membership capital be acquired?
In three ways:
- By making a contribution to Tuleva’s capital. When Tuleva was established, 3,000 people made voluntary contributions ranging from €1,000 to €10,000 to Tuleva’s capital. In 2019, all members had the opportunity to make an additional contribution to Tuleva’s capital to help create our Pillar III fund.
- By earning a membership bonus. By saving your pension assets with Tuleva, you earn an annual membership bonus of 0.05% of the value of your assets. For example, I’ve earned a membership bonus of €76 since 2017.
- By making a work contribution to Tuleva. We pay Tuleva employees and service providers part of their fee in the form of options, allowing them to acquire a share in Tuleva’s membership capital. This has two advantages:
- the team has an even greater interest in growing Tuleva’s value, as they also own a small piece of the company;
- there’s a significant tax advantage in Estonia when paying in options. In total, we’ve issued €418,799 in work contributions.
In 2025, we also made it possible for members to transfer membership capital to each other.
The membership capital already accumulated is invested in the same broad-based index funds in which Tuleva’s assets grow. When global stock markets grow, membership capital earns a return as well. Of course, like any other investment, neither stock market growth nor returns on membership capital are guaranteed. Investment returns are also recognised in the membership capital line item.
Voting rights
Regardless of their contribution to Tuleva’s membership capital, every member is entitled to take part in Tuleva’s general meeting. Each member has one vote at the general meeting. This way, we organise Tuleva’s activities on an equal basis. Voting takes place electronically every spring, and membership bonuses are transferred to members’ accounts after we’ve collectively approved the previous year’s annual report at the general meeting.
If you already save with Tuleva in both pillars, becoming a member is the best way to get the most out of Tuleva. If you haven’t joined us yet, do it now!
Is the membership bonus lawful?
The question was recently raised (in Estonian) whether the membership bonus might conflict with the Funded Pensions Act. We analysed this with lawyers 10 years ago when setting up Tuleva, and we have also explained how the membership bonus works to the regulator. Tuleva is a cooperative, and under § 30(2) of the Commercial Associations Act, profit is distributed among members according to their participation in the cooperative’s activities. At Tuleva, that participation is expressed mainly through pension assets, which makes it the most objective and fair basis for assessing each member’s contribution.
Participating in a cooperative is not a financial service. So the membership bonus is not a separate perk or a reward for choosing a pension fund, but a way to share the profit the cooperative has earned among its owners. The aim of the Funded Pensions Act (§ 14(5¹)) is to prevent different financial services from being tied together (for example, making loan terms depend on your choice of pension fund), not to restrict the ordinary distribution of profit in cooperatives.
