How it works today
The first savings package in France, life insurance is heavily invested in bank contracts loaded with fees and with lower returns than more recent contracts. A situation due to the tax particularities of this product. It has an incomparable advantage vis-à-vis most other investments: a very advantageous tax system … but it is only after 8 years of detention that you benefit from this softer tax on earnings. After 8 years of detention, you pay no more (or almost no more) income tax thanks to the annual allowance of 4,600 euros ; you only have social security contributions to pay on your earnings, in case of withdrawal.
What does it have to do with transferring your life insurance from one bank to another? This investment is one of the few savings products that cannot be transferred from one institution to another as you wish. Most often you have to close your contract or open a new one, and thus lose your “tax precedence”: you have to start the 8-year cycle all over again. You can also keep an old contract and open a second, from a distributor who seduced you, but again you have to start from scratch for the new contract.
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See also
– Exclusive. Electricity, gasoline, Livret A … What the French want for their purchasing power
– Livret A, mortgage loan … Our ten proposals to improve purchasing power
– Bank charges: let’s prohibit invoicing without prior information
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