The amendments were adopted in the first, non-final reading by 79 MPs with no votes against and no abstentions. The bill has yet to be confirmed in the second, final reading.
The law changes were pushed by Latvia From the Heart party that also wants to reduce the sum that pension funds can charge for managing people's assets.
"The first suggestion is that we offer to cut payments to fund managers by half. The second main thing we offer is that people would have more options to choose several investment plans that they can invest into simultaneously. And the third thing, we think it's important that these investments should be inheritable. It would increase people's interest in investing into these funds," said Inguna Sudraba (Latvia from the Heart).
Coincidentally, a very similar initiative by the INDEXO asset management firm popped up on the Manabalss.lv public initiative website just two weeks ago, with close to 4,000 signatures collected since that time.
Latvia's pension system consists of three pillars, with participation in the first two being mandatory.
The first pillar is the state-guaranteed pension, while the second is made up of social tax payments made throughout the life of an individual. These are put into investment funds that are often run by banks.
Whereas the third pillar is made up of voluntary contributions.
