We met Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová during the hot summer days and talked, among other things, about Better Pension Savings, which will bring major changes from January 2027. “Thanks to it, the average client will easily save a million crowns more for retirement than they do today,” says the minister.
Last time, you told me that during the summer holidays you would spend some time “just” being a grandmother. Did you manage it?
For a few days, yes. We went on trips with the grandchildren, visited the zoo, went swimming, and roasted sausages over a fire. I always make sure I have at least a few days for them every summer and at Christmas, when I switch off my phone, stop following the news and devote myself entirely to them. We talk. About their experiences at nursery or school, their friends, games or books. Giving children our time and attention is the most valuable thing we can give them.
Let’s turn to work. One major topic is, of course, the 2027 budget. What are its priorities?
For the first time after four years of my predecessor’s budgetary manoeuvres and tricks, this will be a real and transparent budget. The priorities clearly follow from the government’s policy statement – more investment, support for economic growth, more money for healthcare, high-quality education and ensuring sufficient defence spending. We need well-thought-out investments that will help us kick-start the economy and pay off in the future. I cannot give specific figures yet. As every year, the government will approve the draft budget and submit it to the Chamber of Deputies at the end of September.
On 1 August, an amendment to the Act on Supplementary Pension Savings came into effect. Senior citizens who previously lost state contributions or even some of their own savings can get the money back. How did they come to lose their savings?
From July 2024, old-age pensioners stopped receiving state contributions to their pension savings. However, tens of thousands of them had not yet completed the mandatory minimum five-year savings period. The Fiala government gave them the option either to continue saving without contributions or to terminate their savings early and retrospectively return all state contributions. It was an unfair and senseless step that harmed tens of thousands of senior citizens who had been saving diligently and, ultimately, also damaged trust in the state and in the validity of its commitments.
So how can they get their savings back?
Sixteen thousand senior citizens who chose to terminate their savings early and therefore had to return all credited state contributions can apply in writing to their pension company for the money to be returned by 1 February 2027. After 1 February 2027, the entitlement expires, so I recommend acting without delay. And the amendment has released more than one hundred thousand pensioners who were still locked into the system. We abolished the mandatory five-year period for them, and they can now terminate their pension savings regardless of it.
At the beginning of June, you and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš presented the Better Pension Savings programme. What does it offer clients?
It is the biggest improvement in pension savings in more than thirty years. Thanks to Better Pension Savings, the average client will easily save a million crowns more for retirement than they do today, thanks to lower fees, more dynamic investing based on a life-cycle strategy and an earlier start to saving. I am receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from experts, commentators and most of the opposition. Even the Association of Pension Companies and I agree on all the changes except the reduction in fees.
They do not like that?
That’s right. I understand that they are not thrilled about it, but I cannot accept the Czech Republic having some of the highest fees in Europe. With long-term saving, they eat up more than half of a client’s final savings, while pension companies post record profits every year. The state puts eighteen billion crowns a year into pension savings through contributions and tax relief, so it has the right to demand maximum efficiency for the benefit of citizens.
How exactly will these changes work?
Fees will be reduced automatically for all clients. Today, clients pay an average of two per cent of their savings in management and performance fees. We are abolishing the performance fee and capping the management fee at half a per cent, except for the alternative fund designed for enthusiasts interested in more complex investments. The second change is that it will be easier to set up pension savings. Today, everyone has to complete a lengthy investment questionnaire, which unfortunately directs many clients towards unnecessarily conservative investments. These are suitable only for older savers approaching retirement, not for young clients who have a long savings horizon ahead of them and for whom dynamic investment in equities is appropriate. Although equities may fluctuate in the short term, they generally deliver higher returns over the long term. Instead of completing the questionnaire, clients will now have the option of choosing a life-cycle strategy that will automatically set the optimal allocation of investments according to their age. This is an established practice abroad. In ten years’ time, the old transformed funds, which have been closed to new entrants since 2012, will then come to an end. Their returns have long been the lowest and lag behind inflation. I recommend that anyone still in them not wait until 2036, but transfer their pension savings into the new, higher-yielding funds. This is another point on which we agree with the market.
Are you also thinking about children and some form of savings for them?
That is close to my heart. I talked to my grandchildren during the summer holidays, and tell me, what grandparent or parent would not want to save on favourable terms for their youngest family members? Children can have pension savings even today, but there is relatively little interest because the conditions are the same as for adults. We focused on that, and the result will be an unrivalled savings product for children and young people. Until their eighteenth birthday, the state will now provide a contribution starting from a monthly deposit of just one hundred crowns, compared with the current minimum threshold of five hundred crowns. Young families with children often cannot afford high monthly deposits because their income falls during parental leave while their expenses for nappies, baby equipment, milk and similar necessities increase. That is why we want to encourage them to start saving from the cradle, even with a small amount each month. Secondly, for everyone up to their thirtieth birthday, we will double the state contribution from the current twenty per cent to forty per cent of their own deposit. With a deposit of one hundred crowns, the state will contribute forty crowns, up to a maximum of 680 crowns for a deposit of 1,700 crowns.
But some people may be discouraged by the fact that they cannot withdraw their savings until they are sixty. Or does it work differently?
I have encountered this argument, and we have addressed it. Today, between their eighteenth and twentieth birthdays, clients can withdraw one-third of their savings and continue saving the rest. We are extending this option until their thirty-sixth birthday. They simply need to have been saving for at least ten years. Anyone whose parents have been saving for them since they were very young will already have a substantial sum in their account after the age of thirty and will be able to use one-third of it for studies, travel, a car, furnishing a flat or anything else – no specific purpose will have to be documented. Pension saving will continue with the remaining two-thirds.
CV BOX
Alena Schillerová (born 18 March 1964 in Brno) is the Minister of Finance for the ANO 2011 movement.
She obtained a law degree from Masaryk University in Brno. She went on to work at the Brno-venkov District Financial Office, later becoming the director.
She served as Deputy Minister of Finance for Taxation and Customs, starting in 2016. In 2017, she was appointed Minister of Finance, which was a position she held until the 2021 elections. She has been a Vice-Chair of ANO 2011 since February 2022.
Following the success in the 2025 elections, she is once again head of the Ministry of Finance.
SUMMER HOLIDAYS
Alena Schillerová spent part of the summer in the Strakonice area, at a summer camp at the Customs Administration training centre. “In summer, from morning until night, you can hear the laughter and clamour of children who have come to enjoy their holidays,” she says. “Most of them are the children of our customs officers, who work hard for the Czech Republic throughout the year. A customs officer is not just someone who checks excise stamps on crates and whether lorries have paid their tolls. Our male and female customs officers are on the front line when it comes to fighting smuggling of people, drugs, weapons, dirty money and dangerous substances. They are an indispensable force in combating organised crime and terrorism. Some of them do not even get a break during their summer holidays because they serve as group leaders and prepare activities for the children. I, on the other hand, had a wonderful rest there. It brought back lovely memories of my own summer camps, and even after all these years I watched the campers’ eyes, and sometimes their mouths, open wide as the leader announced the rules of a new competition, adventure game or the destination of a trip. Nothing has changed. And the countryside there is beautiful! Even the poet Julius Zeyer fell in love with it and lived and worked there for many years.”
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