Cassa Forense, the €18bn first pillar pension scheme for lawyers in Italy, is calling on Italy’s parliament to cut taxes on returns made on assets invested by pension funds to support the domestic economy.

The president of the scheme, Valter Militi, said that a “reward” in the form of a lower levy should come from parliament and government for pension funds managing assets invested in Italy.

“We receive, instead, a penalty in terms of taxes, because our returns on assets have a 26% levy – the same percentage [applied] to speculative investors, and compared to 20% applied to [second pillar] pension funds,” Militi added, speaking yesterday before the parliamentary committee investigating first pillar and second pillar pension funds’ investment policies.

A legislative process is underway to cut the tax on returns to 20%, and “we hope this could be the goal”, he said.

Currently, Cassa Foresee invests 50% of its total assets at market value in Italy, and 75% in the European Union.

The scheme has opted to set up two investment vehicles – a SICAV and a SICAF – usually based in Luxembourg, or in other jurisdictions, in Italy, Militi said.

Cassa Forense has continued to allocate capital to private markets, even if the deal flow of those strategies saw a setback, it said in its financial statement for 2023.

The scheme invests €300m per year in private markets, and has over time increased its allocation to infrastructure, private equity, private debt and venture capital, Militi said, adding that real economy investments are generating positive returns.

One of the goals of the scheme when talking to asset managers is to get across the message that innovative start-ups and small and mid-sized companies (SMEs) are present all over Italy, and not only in more economically developed regions in the north of the country, compared to the south, Militi said.

the first pillar scheme invests 7.3% of total assets amounting to €114.3bn in bonds and equities of Italian companies, as of the end of 2023, up from 6.5% in 2022, according to the latest report published by pension regulator COVIP.

Approximately €800m are invested in debt securities and €7.6bn in equities of Italian companies, including €1.95bn in Bank of Italy equity, it added.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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