Product Specification#

Status: Draft, 2026-08-26 (all cited sources accessed 2026-08-26).

Scope note. This is a standardized composite specification assembled for reference liability cash-flow modeling of the euro support of a French contrat d'assurance vie (life savings contract). It does not describe any single insurer’s contract or fund. Facts carrying a source tag — [S#] (primary product documents: notice d'information, conditions générales, document d'information clé, fee tables) and [R#] (regulatory/actuarial references), both numbered per _research/assurance-vie-euro.md and resolved against sources.md in this directory — were extracted from the cited document. [REG-R#] resolves against the cross-product reference library references/regulatory-and-actuarial-references.md (its own frozen R1–R49 numbering). Values marked std are standardizations introduced for the reference implementation; each carries a numbered footnote giving the rationale and, where the research recorded one, the observed range across insurers. Claims the research file could not confirm against a retrieved document are flagged unverified. The mechanics anchors are six insurers’ own booklets and fee tables — Generali Vie / Boursorama [S1], MACSF [S2], Suravenir [S3] [S4] [S5], CNP Assurances [S6] [S7] [S8], Abeille Vie / Afer [S9]–[S12] and MAIF VIE [S13] — and the quantitative anchor is the ACPR’s annual revaluation study R14.

French terms of art are kept in French and glossed on first use: fonds en euros (euro fund), épargne acquise (the savings accumulated on the support), participation aux bénéfices (PB — profit participation), provision pour participation aux bénéfices (PPB — the collective profit-participation reserve), taux servi (the rate actually credited), taux minimum garanti (TMG), effet cliquet (ratchet), rachat (surrender), avance (policy loan), arbitrage (switch between supports), prélèvements sociaux (social levies).

Product overview and market role#

A French contrat d'assurance vie is a savings wrapper whose money sits on one or more supports. The fonds en euros is the capital-guaranteed general-account support: the insurer carries the investment risk, the policyholder’s épargne acquise cannot fall because of market movements, and each year’s return is credited definitively by the effet cliquet [S9] [S11]. Every contract retrieved here is multisupport — the euro fund sits alongside unités de compte (UC, unit-linked) and, twice, an eurocroissance support [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S9]. A monosupport euro contract is the degenerate case with the UC allocation set to zero; no monosupport notice was retrieved, and the claim that such contracts are now rarely marketed is unverified.

The dominant retail form is a contrat d'assurance vie de groupe à adhésion facultative — a group policy between an insurer and a subscribing body (a bank or an association) that individuals join by adhésion — verified across BoursoVie (Generali Vie / Boursorama) [S1], RES Multisupport (MACSF / association AMAP) [S2], Meilleurtaux Placement Vie 2 (Suravenir / VIREA) [S3], Croissance Avenir (Suravenir / SEREP) [S4], Nuances 3D (CNP) [S6] and Multisupport Afer (Abeille co-insurers / Afer) [S9]. Genuinely individual contracts exist — CNP’s Perspective Capi is a contrat de capitalisation individuel nominatif [S8], which has no insured life and no beneficiary clause but whose euro support behaves identically. Underwriting classification is branch 20 (Vie-Décès) and branch 22 (contracts linked to investment funds) [S3].

The euro support is the largest single savings liability in France. Euro-support provisions mathématiques (mathematical provisions) of individual contracts were EUR 1 207 bn at end-2025 against EUR 1 178 bn at end-2024, and collective contracts a further EUR 154 bn R14; total assurance vie encours was EUR 2 088 bn at end-2025 R17, of which capital-guaranteed contracts EUR 1 361 bn and UC EUR 612 bn, against household financial wealth of which assurance vie and retirement savings are 32.9% R15. In 2025 the market took EUR 159.1 bn of premiums against EUR 115.1 bn of benefits (surrenders EUR 71.0 bn, claims EUR 44.1 bn) for a net inflow of EUR 44.0 bn, of which euro supports +EUR 6.4 bn — positive again after five consecutive years of net outflow — and UC +EUR 37.6 bn R15. The recommended holding period is eight years and the published reason is fiscal, not economic: “Durée de détention recommandée : 8 ans compte tenu de la fiscalité en vigueur” [S6]. The euro support on its own carries a recommended minimum holding period of one year and a PRIIPs summary risk indicator of 1 out of 7, the lowest class [S5].

This specification standardizes a single composite: a multisupport group contract with one euro support, zero frais sur versement (entry charge), an annual frais de gestion sur encours (charge on the account balance) levied at 31 December, a capital guarantee net of those management charges, no contractual PB percentage, a TMG of zero, an annual taux servi announced for the closing year and definitively acquired on crediting, prélèvements sociaux at 17.2% taken as the interest is credited, and free surrender at any time with no penalty. That is BoursoVie [S1], Meilleurtaux Placement Vie 2 [S3] and MAIF’s contract [S13] with their differences ironed out, sitting on the ACPR’s central figures — 2.63% credited, 0.63% charged, 0.32% average technical rate R14.

Representative specification#

Contract form and wrapper#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Legal form	`contrat d'assurance vie de groupe à adhésion facultative`; individual `adhésion` to a group policy	[S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S6] [S9]
Branches	20 (Vie-Décès) and 22 (linked to investment funds)	[S3]
Support architecture	Multisupport; this specification models the euro support only	[S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S9]; single-support scope std (1)
Premium forms	`versement initial`, `versements libres`, `versements libres programmés` (minimum EUR 50 monthly)	[S1]
Minimum initial payment	EUR 100	[S10]; observed EUR 30 [S13] to EUR 300 [S1]
Minimum partial surrender	EUR 1 000, residual account value EUR 1 000; programmed EUR 150 monthly and only above EUR 10 000 on the euro funds	[S1]
Association fee	EUR 0	[S13]; observed EUR 10/EUR 20 [S2], EUR 20 [S9] [S10]; choice std (2)
Renunciation	30 full calendar days	[S2] [S6] [S9] REG-R29

The euro support — guarantee and charges#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Capital guarantee form	Premiums net of entry charges, less the annual management charges — the `garantie nette`	[S3] [S5] [S6] [S7]; choice std (3)
Guarantee measurement	On the account value before `prélèvements sociaux` and income tax	[S1] [S2] [S3]
Guarantee is a floor, not a return	Risk indicator 1 of 7; stress, unfavourable and intermediate one-year scenarios all return exactly the amount invested	[S5]
`Frais sur versement` (entry charge)	0.00%	[S1] [S3] [S13]; observed 0.5% [S9] [S10] and 3% max [S2]
`Frais de gestion sur encours`	0.60% p.a. of the euro-support balance	[S3]; level choice std (4)
Charge timing	Levied at 31 December value date; pro rata temporis on payments and disinvestments during the year	[S1] [S2] [S9]
Charge base convention	The average balance over the year (`prorata temporis`)	reconstructed from the published minimum surrender tables [S2] [S3]; std (5)
`Frais d'arbitrage` (switch charge)	0.00%	[S1] [S3] [S10]
`Frais de rachat` (surrender charge)	0.00%	[S2] [S3] [S10] [S13]
Annuity conversion charge	3% of `arrérages` (annuity instalments)	[S3] [S4] [S10] [S13]
Charges internal to the fund	0.24% p.a. management and operating plus 0.03% p.a. transaction costs, excluded from the contract’s charges	[S5]; treatment std (6)

Crediting — `taux servi`, TMG and `participation aux bénéfices`#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Crediting date	31 December, value date; PB definitively acquired once credited. Rate fixed by the board for the closing year, published in Q1 of the following year	[S1] [S2] [S6] [S7] [S9]; [S3] [S4]
`Taux minimum garanti` (TMG)	0.00% p.a.	std (7)
TMG statutory ceiling and duration	Lower of 150% of the maximum technical rate, and the higher of 120% of that rate and 110% of the average rates credited over the two preceding financial years; fixed for at least six months and at most to the end of the following financial year	R4 REG-R18
Maximum technical rate	75% of the TME; beyond eight years, and for periodic-premium contracts of any duration, min(3.5%, 60% of the TME)	R1 REG-R17
Contractual PB percentage	None — the statutory allocation applies	[S1] [S3] [S4]; observed 90% [S4] and 100% [S9]; choice std (8)
Statutory PB floor	The `compte de participation aux résultats` is credited with 85% of the balance of the compte financier and with the balance of the `compte technique` less the insurer’s share, that share being the greater of 10% of the credit balance and 4.5% of annual premiums	R5, art. A132-11 R6 R14, fn 12 REG-R15
Statutory minimum benefit	The credit balance of that account, less interest already credited to mathematical provisions	R5, art. A132-12 REG-R15
Reference `taux servi` target	2.30% p.a., net of charges on the balance and before `prélèvements sociaux`	std (9)
Market `taux servi` 2025	2.63% individual, 2.64% collective, on the same net-of-charges basis; undertakings holding 50% of encours credited between 2.3% and 2.9%; inside one insurer the best- and worst-revalued groups were 0.99 point apart and the least-revalued sat 0.39 point below the mean	R14
UC-holding bonus	Often 100 bp, sometimes above 200 bp; not modeled	R14; exclusion std (10)
Asset return backing it	`Taux de rendement de l'actif` 2.8% in 2025 (2.5% in 2024); half of undertakings between 2.4% and 3.3%; bonds about 60% of investments	R14
Average technical rate	0.32% individual, 0.98% collective in 2025 — a discount-rate statistic, not a TMG	R14

`Provision pour participation aux bénéfices` (PPB)#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Nature	Collective reserve holding PB attributed but not yet credited to individual contracts	R5, art. A132-16 [S2] [S9] REG-R6 REG-R16
Release constraint	Sums carried to the PPB must be applied to mathematical provisions or paid to policyholders within the eight financial years following the year they were carried	R5, art. A132-16 R6, art. A331-9 [S2] REG-R16
Opening level	4.0% of the euro-support account value	R14; per-policy attribution std (11)
Market level	4.0% of life provisions for individual contracts at end-2025 (4.3% end-2024, 4.9% end-2023); 2.0% collective. Bancassureurs 4.2%, traditional insurers 3.6%	R14 R16; PPB stock EUR 53.6 bn at end-2024, −11.1% on end-2023 REG-R47
Purpose	Smoothing: over 1999–2023 the mechanism divides the volatility of credited rates by five relative to markets and redistributes about 1.6% of encours per year between cohorts	R14, box 2 [S9]
Exceptional `reprise`	Permitted only where the life technical account was negative in the last financial year and the SCR is no longer covered, under an ACPR-approved recovery plan with restitution within eight years	REG-R16; out of scope std (12)
HCSF power	The Haut Conseil de stabilité financière may modulate the rules for constituting and releasing the PPB	R8, 5° bis REG-R13

Levies and taxation of the euro support#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
`Prélèvements sociaux` rate	17.2%	[S3]
`Prélèvements sociaux` timing	On the euro support, as the products are credited to the contract each year (`au fil de l'eau`), whether or not anything is withdrawn; the UC portion is charged only at `dénouement` or on death	R9, art. L136-7 II
Composition of the 17.2%	CSG 9.2% + CRDS 0.5% + prélèvement de solidarité 7.5%	unverified; neither art. L136-8 CSS nor art. 235 ter CGI was retrieved
Levy base	The interest actually credited, net of the management charge	std (13)
Income tax on surrender	12.8% before eight years; 7.5% after eight years on products from premiums within EUR 150 000, 12.8% on the excess fraction; annual allowance EUR 4 600 single / EUR 9 200 jointly taxed	[S1] [S3] R10 R11 REG-R40
Death levy, premiums paid before age 70	EUR 152 500 abattement per beneficiary, then 20% to EUR 700 000 and 31.25% above	R12 [S1] REG-R41
Death duties, premiums paid after age 70	Ordinary inheritance scale on the premiums only, after a global EUR 30 500 abattement	R13 [S1] REG-R41
Capital/gain split of a partial surrender	Not stated in any retrieved document	unverified

Anchor model cell#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
`épargne acquise` at the valuation date	EUR 100 000.00	std (14)
Completed policy years at the valuation date	5	std (14)
Age at `adhésion` / attained age	55 / 60, male	std (14)
`Versements libres programmés`	EUR 2 400 p.a., paid evenly through the year	std (14); above the EUR 50 monthly minimum [S1]
`Rachats partiels programmés`	EUR 3 000 p.a. from projection year 6, paid evenly through the year	std (14); above the EUR 150 monthly minimum, and the balance stays above the EUR 10 000 floor [S1]
`Frais sur versement` / `frais de gestion`	0.00% / 0.60% p.a.	[S1] [S3] [S13] / [S3]
TMG	0.00%	std (7)
PPB attributed at the valuation date	EUR 4 000.00, in eight equal vintages of EUR 500.00	4.0% R14; attribution and vintage split std (11)
Reference `taux servi` target	2.30% p.a. net	std (9)
`Prélèvements sociaux`	17.2%	[S3]

Footnotes to std rows:

Every retrieved contract is multisupport [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S9], but the euro support is separately valued, separately charged and separately revalued, and the PB machinery does not reach the UC part R5, art. A132-10 R9. Modeling the euro support alone is a clean cut, not an approximation; the UC compartment is the sibling product assurance_vie_uc.
Observed: EUR 20 at Afer [S9] [S10]; EUR 10 individual / EUR 20 joint at MACSF [S2]; none at MAIF [S13]. A bank-distributed contract has no association and no fee [S1]; zero keeps the fee out of the account roll-forward.
The retrieved documents split cleanly. Gross-style (floor = premiums net of entry charges): Suravenir Rendement [S4], Afer’s Fonds Garanti [S9], CNP Perspective Capi [S8]. Net-of-management-charges: Suravenir Rendement 2 and Opportunités 2 [S3] [S4], CNP Nuances 3D and Nuances Plus [S6] [S7], Suravenir’s fund-level disclosure [S5]. Both designs run inside one insurer and even inside one notice [S4]. The net form is chosen as the modern design and the one whose arithmetic the published minimum surrender tables actually show [S3]. The date of the market shift from gross to net is unverified — no retrieved document dates it.
Observed contract levels: 0.475% [S9] [S10], 0.50% max [S2], 0.60% [S3] [S4], 0.75% max [S1], 0.80% [S13]. The ACPR’s actual ratio of charges paid to average mathematical provisions was 0.63% for individual contracts in 2025 (0.62% in 2024), half of all undertakings between 0.5% and 0.8% R14. 0.60% is a real contract rate [S3] in the middle of that band; [S1], [S2] and the Opportunités 2 rate are stated as maxima, not actuals R14.
No retrieved notice writes the charge formula; the eight-year minimum surrender-value tables settle it arithmetically. Suravenir publishes 994.00, 988.03, 982.10, 976.21, 970.35, 964.53, 958.74, 952.99 for a EUR 1 000 net contribution at 0.60% with no PB [S3] — EUR 1 000 × (1 − 0.006)^n, truncated to the cent — and MACSF publishes 965.15, 960.32, 955.52 for EUR 970 at 0.50%, which is 970 × 0.995^n [S2]. Both are a charge on the running balance, so the model levies it on the average balance over the year. BoursoVie’s base including the year’s PB [S1] is the observed variation; see technical-notes.md, known modeling pitfalls.
Suravenir states plainly that the fund’s own 0.24% + 0.03% costs are internal to the fund and exclude the contract’s charges [S5]. A taux servi quoted net of contract charges R14 is already net of both, so deducting the fund’s internal costs again double-counts. Afer caps its fund’s asset-management charge at 0.1% of assets under management excluding OPCVM [S9].
No public figure exists for the TMG of any contract in this set. Meilleurtaux Placement Vie 2 and Croissance Avenir state no guaranteed interest rate at all under their “Rendement minimum garanti et participation” heading [S3] [S4]; BoursoVie names a TMG “annoncé en début d’année” without its value [S1]; MACSF names a board-set art. A132-3 rate without giving it [S2]; Afer names a Taux Plancher Garanti without giving it [S11]. Zero is the design the two Suravenir contracts describe. The nearest public anchor — the ACPR’s average taux technique of 0.32% in 2025 R14 — is a different quantity, the maximum rate at which the insurer’s commitments are discounted, fixed at subscription and gross of charges, and must not be substituted.
Contractual PB is the exception: “il n’est pas prévu de participation aux bénéfices contractuelle” [S1], and likewise on the Rendement 2 / Opportunités 2 funds [S3] [S4]. Where it exists it is specific — Suravenir Rendement fixes 90% with the profit account written out in full [S4], Afer’s Fonds Garanti 100% of the net financial profits of the ring-fenced fund [S9]. A contractual percentage removes the insurer’s discretion over the numerator; the composite keeps that discretion and floors it at the statutory minimum.
No insurer’s forward crediting policy is public. 2.30% is the bottom of the band covering 50% of encours in 2025 (2.3%–2.9%) R14 and matches an unbonused contract’s position: the market mean was 2.63% and the least-revalued homogeneous group inside an insurer sat 0.39 point below its own mean R14, about 2.24%. It is a target, not an outcome — the model credits it only where the statutory floor and the PPB allow (see technical-notes.md).
The ACPR observes UC-conditioned uplifts “souvent de 100 points de base, et allant jusqu’à plus de 200 points de base” R14, but no retrieved contract publishes its bonus grid. Modeling one would mean inventing the grid, so the composite prices the unbonused rate and treats the bonus as a scenario overlay.
The PPB is collective and is not attributed to individual contracts in law; attributing a per-policy share is the device that makes the eight-year clock visible at model-point level. The 4.0% level is the ACPR’s end-2025 ratio for individual contracts R14, corroborated by France Assureurs’ EUR 53.6 bn PPB stock at end-2024, about 4% of euro-support provisions REG-R47. The eight equal vintages are a steady-state construction — a fund that has run the art. A132-16 clock for eight years carries roughly one eighth of its PPB in each open vintage — and no insurer publishes its own vintage profile.
Art. A132-16-1 permits an exceptional reprise only on two cumulative conditions — a negative life technical account in the last financial year and an uncovered SCR — with an ACPR-approved recovery plan and a distribution ban until restitution REG-R16. It is a solvency-stress management action, not a projection assumption.
Art. L136-7 II fixes the timing of the levy on euro-denominated rights but not the base R9, and no retrieved product document says whether the base is gross or net of the management charge. The model uses the interest actually inscribed on the contract, i.e. net of the charge, because that is the amount the contract’s value rises by. The refund mechanism where levies taken at inscription exceed those finally due at dénouement was not retrieved and is unverified.
Pure modeling anchor chosen to exercise the mechanics: an in-force cell five years in, so the eighth policy anniversary — the tax threshold that drives the surrender spike R10 REG-R40 — falls inside the projection; a programmed payment and a programmed partial surrender so that both the prorata temporis weighting [S1] and the account release path are exercised. The amounts are not priced values.

Contractual mechanics#

The account. The policyholder’s balance on the euro support is the épargne acquise, the per-contract share of the fund’s provision mathématique — the first of the eleven technical provisions a French life insurer carries REG-R6. BoursoVie computes it daily in compound interest and credits the year’s PB at 31 December value date [S1]; the reference model works on a monthly grid with 31 December as the single crediting date.

The capital guarantee. The composite carries the garantie nette: the floor equals premiums net of entry charges, reduced each year by the annual management charges [S3] [S5] [S6] [S7]. CNP states it most plainly — the contract “ne comporte pas de garantie en capital au moins égale aux sommes versées nettes de frais sur versement, mais il comporte une garantie en capital au moins égale aux sommes versées, nettes de frais sur versement et nettes de frais de gestion annuels” [S6]. The floor is measured before prélèvements sociaux and income tax, because the published minimum surrender-value tables are explicitly before both [S1] [S2] [S3]. Where a notice says only “nettes de frais” without saying which charges — MACSF’s wording — the eight-year table is the tiebreaker, and MACSF’s falls at 0.50% a year [S2].

Effet cliquet. The insurers “garantissent définitivement le maintien total des résultats acquis au 31 décembre de chaque année par un mécanisme appelé « effet de cliquet »” [S9]; once a year’s distribution has been credited “elle ne peut plus être remise en cause” [S9], and it “est alors définitivement acquise à l’adhésion. Elle sera, elle-même, revalorisée dans les mêmes conditions que les versements effectués” [S1]. The ratchet is a statement about credited interest, not about the account balance: on a garantie nette contract the balance can still fall, because the management charge continues to bite in a year of zero PB. Both propositions are true at once and a model must implement them separately.

The annual crediting cycle. The board fixes the rate for the closing year — BoursoVie and MACSF credit at 31 December value date [S1] [S2], CNP describes the PB as awarded “au 31 décembre de chaque année” [S6] [S7], Suravenir’s Directoire decides during Q1 of the following year and then applies it [S3] [S4]. The per-contract allocation is the PB rate applied to the adhesion’s mathematical provision on the fund, weighted by the time the sums were present on the fund during the year [S1]. The management charge is levied on the same date, on a base that at BoursoVie includes the year’s PB [S1]; Afer applies its 0.475% “après affectation de la participation aux bénéfices” [S9].

In-year dénouement. Every insurer needs a rule for a policyholder leaving before 31 December, and all four devices are a floor rate applied pro rata temporis: the TMG announced at the start of the year — “seul le taux minimum garanti annoncé en début d’année sera attribué au prorata temporis” [S1]; the board-set art. A132-3 rate [S2]; the annual Suravenir rate [S3]; or Afer’s Taux Plancher Garanti, which alone carries a following-year top-up to the definitive fund return [S11]. BoursoVie credits the full annual PB to sums surrendered or switched during the year provided the adhesion is still in force on the following 1 January [S1].

The statutory participation floor. The obligation to share technical and financial results is statutory REG-R14 and its mechanics sit in the arrêté R5 REG-R15. The compte de participation aux résultats is credited with 85% of the balance of the compte financier, and with the balance of the compte technique less the insurer’s own share, that share being the greater of 10% of the credit balance and 4.5% of annual premiums R5, art. A132-11 R6, art. A331-4 REG-R15. The popular statement of this rule — “90% of financial results and 85% of technical results” — is the wrong way round and is not what the article says; the ACPR restates the correct form directly, that only 85% of the compte financier “lui est destiné pour sa revalorisation, directement ou par l’intermédiaire de la PPB”, and that “certains contrats peuvent contractuellement prévoir un pourcentage plus élevé” R14, fn 12. Two consequences matter for a model. The policyholder share of a positive technical balance is at most 90% and can be materially less when premiums are large relative to the technical result, because the 4.5%-of-premiums limb then binds instead of the 10% limb. And the minimum is determined globally, not contract by contract REG-R15, with equal treatment required between paid-up and premium-paying contracts of the same category and the same mathematical provision R5, art. A132-17.

The PPB and its eight-year clock. The participation may be credited directly to mathematical provisions or carried, wholly or partly, to the provision pour participation aux bénéfices; sums carried there must be applied to mathematical provisions or paid to policyholders within the eight financial years following the year in which they were carried R5, art. A132-16 R6, art. A331-9 REG-R16. MACSF restates the limit in the contract itself — “les sommes portées à cette provision sont affectées à la provision mathématique de chaque contrat dans un délai maximum de 8 ans” [S2] — and Afer gives the purpose in the insurer’s own words: part of the fund’s revenues may go to the PPB “afin de lisser les rendements … dans le temps et de constituer des réserves pour pallier des revenus à la baisse”, the dotation, management and release being handled jointly through the association’s supervisory committee [S9]. The clock is what makes the PPB a bounded smoothing device: money parked in it is deferred, never cancelled.

Prélèvements sociaux. This is the mechanic that most distinguishes a French euro fund from any foreign guaranteed account. Under art. L136-7 II of the Code de la sécurité sociale, products attached to contracts whose rights are expressed in euros are charged “lors de leur inscription au bon ou contrat” — that is, each year as the PB is credited, whether or not anything is withdrawn — while the unit-linked portion is charged only at dénouement or on the insured’s death R9. Under a multisupport contract the euro portion follows the annual rule and the UC portion waits R9. The contracts corroborate it: Suravenir’s dynamisation des plus-values option switches the euro fund’s annual gain to UC “diminuée des prélèvements sociaux” [S3], and Boursorama’s tax annexe puts the products under art. L136-7 [S1]. The rate is 17.2% [S3]. The consequence for a projection is arithmetic and unavoidable: the euro account compounds net of 17.2% of each year’s credited interest, and the published minimum surrender-value tables cannot be used to calibrate this because they are stated before social and tax levies [S1] [S2] [S3].

Rachat. Every contract carries a faculté de rachat, partial or total, at any time [S1] [S2] [S3] [S6]; the euro support is one the investor “peut racheter unilatéralement et à tout instant” [S5]. Settlement is within two months by statute R7 REG-R31, restated by BoursoVie and MACSF [S1] [S2] and contracted at 30 days by Suravenir and CNP [S3] [S6]; late payment bears interest at 1.5× the legal rate for two months then twice the legal rate R7 [S3]. There is no surrender penalty — 0% or EUR 0 in every fee table retrieved [S2] [S10] [S13]. Absent instruction, BoursoVie surrenders first from Eurossima, then Euro Exclusif, then the largest UC [S1]: an unspecified withdrawal drains the euro fund first, which matters for any multisupport model. Two things block liquidity — an avance in force suspends most options [S1] [S3], and once a designated beneficiary has accepted under art. L132-9 the policyholder can no longer surrender, take an avance, revoke the beneficiary or pledge the contract without that beneficiary’s agreement [S1] [S3].

Death benefit. The death capital equals the contract’s account value — the épargne acquise — determined at the date the insurer learns of the death, less outstanding avances and their interest, plus any optional death cover [S3]. There is no additional guarantee on the euro part: the capital floor already prevents a loss, which is why the optional death riders exist only for the UC part [S3] [S4]. The euro part carries its own in-year revaluation on the rules above [S1] [S2] [S11], and statutory revaluation from death to settlement is required by art. L132-5 [S3]. Settlement is 30 days from a complete file at Suravenir with penalty interest at double then triple the legal rate [S3], two months at BoursoVie [S1]; the statutory clock is fifteen days to request documents and one month from the complete file REG-R31. Sums unclaimed for ten years transfer to the Caisse des dépôts and become State property after twenty REG-R39.

Loi Sapin 2 / HCSF. The Haut Conseil de stabilité financière may, on a proposal of the Governor of the Banque de France and to prevent a serious and characterised threat to financial stability, temporarily limit the payment of surrender values, restrict the free disposal of assets, defer or restrict arbitrages and avances, and limit the acceptance of premiums R8, art. L631-2-1 5° ter REG-R13. Measures run for at most three months, renewable, with the surrender-value restriction capped at six consecutive months R8 REG-R13. Suravenir discloses the power but describes the whole of it as “temporaire (maximum 6 mois renouvelable)” [S5]; the statute governs, and the divergence is recorded rather than propagated. Whether the mechanism has ever been triggered is unverified. It is out of the projection’s scope, and technical-notes.md says so rather than pretending the model covers it.

Riders and options#

In scope (modeled as flags or as scenario overlays):

Avance (policy loan), offered by every insurer here but on terms held outside the notice: BoursoVie and MACSF refer to a separate “Règlement Général des Avances” the member must sign [S1] [S2], and Suravenir grants one “sous réserve de l’accord de Suravenir, dont les modalités et la tarification lui seront communiquées sur simple demande” [S3]. The insurer may grant advances up to the surrender value REG-R31. No rate, no maximum quotité and no maximum term is published in any retrieved document; the usual market description (60–80% of the euro savings, up to three years renewable, at the credited rate plus a margin) is unverified. Modeled as an off-by-default flag with std parameters; outstanding advances and their interest are deducted from the death capital and any settlement [S3].
Optional death cover on the UC part. Suravenir’s rider covers the capital sous risque — the positive difference between cumulative net premiums and the surrender value — with a one-year waiting period, entry ages 12 to under 70, no medical formalities, at monthly premiums of 0.15‰ to 5.15‰ of capital at risk by age [S3] [S4]; MACSF’s automatic garantie plancher to the member’s 70th birthday costs 0.10% p.a. on UC [S2]; Afer’s non-optional death floor 0.055% p.a. of UC and eurocroissance savings [S9] [S10]; Suravenir’s accidental-death option adds 0.14% to the annual charge [S3] [S4]. These riders price the UC risk, not the euro risk, and the composite carries no euro-side death rider.
Sécurisation and dynamisation des plus-values, switching the euro fund’s gain to UC above EUR 100 [S1] or EUR 25 cumulative [S3], the gain moving “diminuée des prélèvements sociaux” [S3]; BoursoVie’s sécurisation option costs 1% max of the amount transferred [S1]. A scenario overlay on the account release, not a euro-fund mechanic.
Annuity conversion, at 3% of arrérages at Afer [S10], MAIF [S13] and Suravenir [S3] [S4]. The resulting liability is the sibling product rente_viagere; this specification stops at the conversion.

Out of scope for the composite: the UC compartment and its arbitrage machinery (sibling assurance_vie_uc); the eurocroissance support offered alongside the euro fund on two retrieved contracts [S1] [S9] (sibling eurocroissance); UC-holding bonuses, because no contract publishes its grid R14; beneficiary acceptance under art. L132-9 [S1] [S3]; the réserve de capitalisation and the other general-account technical provisions REG-R6 REG-R7 REG-R8; and the HCSF suspension power R8 REG-R13.

Variations across insurers#

Feature	BoursoVie — Generali Vie [S1]	RES Multisupport — MACSF [S2]	Meilleurtaux Placement Vie 2 / Croissance Avenir — Suravenir [S3] [S4]	Nuances 3D / Plus — CNP [S6] [S7]	Multisupport Afer — Abeille [S9] [S10]	ARS — MAIF VIE [S13]
Wrapper	Group, bank-distributed	Group via association AMAP	Group via associations VIREA / SEREP	Group, bank-distributed	Group via association Afer	Group, mutual-distributed
Capital guarantee	Premiums net of charges	“nettes de frais”, but the 8-year table erodes at 0.50% p.a.	Rendement: gross; Rendement 2 / Opportunités 2: net of annual management charges	Net of annual management charges	Premiums net of entry charges	Not stated in the fee table
Contractual PB	None — statutory allocation under A132-16	None stated — statutory allocation at 31 Dec	Rendement 90%, profit account written out in full; Rendement 2 / Opportunités 2 none	None — PB awarded at 31 Dec	100% of the net financial profits of the ring-fenced fund	Not stated
PPB in the notice	Via art. A132-16	Yes, with the 8-year release limit	Yes — the whole positive balance carried to a shared PPB	Not in the DIC	Yes, managed through the Comité de Surveillance	Not stated
In-year rate on `dénouement`	TMG announced at the start of the year, pro rata	Board-set A132-3 rate, pro rata	Rate set at least annually, pro rata	Not stated in the DIC	Taux Plancher Garanti, pro rata, with a next-year top-up [S11]	Not stated
`Frais sur versement` (euro)	0%	3% max	0%	Entry-cost impact 0.45%–1.09% p.a. at 8 years, all options	0.5%	0%
`Frais de gestion` (euro)	0.75% max	0.50% max	0.60% (Rendement 2)	Not disclosed separately	0.475%	0.80%
Settlement deadline	2 months	2 months	30 days	30 days	Not extracted	Not stated
Distinctive feature	Daily compounding of the euro account	High entry charge, low annual charge	Two generations of euro fund in one notice, one gross-guaranteed and one net	The plainest published statement of the net guarantee	Association governance, 100% PB, ring-fenced fund, Taux Plancher Garanti	Zero entry charge, EUR 30 entry ticket

What actually varies, in order of importance for a model:

Whether the guarantee erodes. Gross-guaranteed funds hold the floor at premiums net of entry charges [S4] [S8] [S9]; net-guaranteed funds let it fall by the management charge every year [S3] [S4] [S6] [S7]. Both designs coexist at the same insurer and inside the same notice [S4]. This is the single largest structural difference and it changes the shape of the guarantee cost, not merely its level.
Where the charge sits. The mutual and association contracts front-load (MACSF 3% entry / 0.50% annual; Afer 0.5% / 0.475%), the online and bancassurance contracts charge nothing at entry and more annually (BoursoVie 0% / 0.75% max; MAIF 0% / 0.80%; Suravenir 0% / 0.60%) [S1] [S2] [S3] [S10] [S13]. Over eight years these are not equivalent, and the ACPR’s 0.63% actual sits in the middle of the annual cluster R14. Note also that three of these levels are stated as maxima, not actuals [S1] [S2] [S3].
Whether PB is contractual. Most contracts leave the sharing to the statutory minimum and the insurer’s discretion [S1] [S3]; Suravenir Rendement fixes 90% with a written profit account [S4], Afer 100% of the net financial profits of a ring-fenced fund [S9]. A contractual percentage removes the insurer’s discretion over the numerator and, with it, most of the PPB lever.
The in-year credited rate. All four named devices — TMG [S1], the A132-3 board rate [S2], the annual Suravenir rate [S3], the Taux Plancher Garanti [S11] — are a floor rate applied pro rata temporis; Afer alone commits to a following-year top-up to the definitive rate [S11].
Bonuses. The ACPR observes UC-conditioned uplifts of 100 to more than 200 basis points and a 0.99 point spread between the best- and worst-revalued contract groups inside a single insurer R14, and no retrieved notice publishes its bonus grid — a variation that is large, real and undocumented at contract level.
Settlement speed, 30 days [S3] [S6] against the statutory two months [S1] [S2] R7.

Two limits on this comparison are worth stating. The insurer sample is six groups across thirteen retrieved documents, which supports the structural claims but not a market-wide charge distribution — for that, use the ACPR’s own distribution R14. Thirteen and not fourteen because one document could not be retrieved: the Afer Génération notice returned HTTP 404 [S14], so Afer EuroGénération’s mechanics, including the reported eight-year loyalty bonus, are unverified; only its 2025 rate of 4.05% is sourced [S11] [S12].

Regulatory context#

Profit participation and guaranteed rates. The obligation is statutory — life and capitalisation undertakings “doivent faire participer les assurés aux bénéfices techniques et financiers qu’elles réalisent” — with the mechanics delegated to an arrêté REG-R14. Those mechanics are arts. A132-10 to A132-17 R5 REG-R15 REG-R16, formerly A331-3 to A331-9 R6; insurers still cite the old numbering [S4], but the operative modern text is the A132 series and Légifrance served the A331 articles only in historic versions R6. The minimum is determined globally, not contract by contract, and contrats à capital variable — the UC part — are outside the machinery R5, art. A132-10 REG-R15, as are eurocroissance contracts under art. L134-1 REG-R15. On the guaranteed side, art. A132-2 permits an insurer to guarantee a total of technical interest plus profit participation — not a separate credit stacked on the technical rate — related to the fraction of mathematical provisions the guarantee covers R3 REG-R18; art. A132-3 caps those rates and fixes their duration R4 REG-R18; and arts. A132-1 and A132-1-1 fix the maximum technical rate that anchors the cap at 75% of the taux moyen des emprunts d'État (TME), and beyond eight years the lower of 3.5% and 60% of the TME, moving on a 0.25-point grid floored at zero and changing only when the monthly reference rate has fallen 0.10 point or risen 0.35 point, with three months to implement R1 R2 REG-R17.

Technical provisions. A French life insurer carries eleven technical provisions under art. R343-3, each engagement provisionable under exactly one of them REG-R6. Two are load-bearing here: the provision mathématique, the difference between the actuarial present values of the two sides’ commitments including future management costs — which is why a French PM is not a net-premium reserve — and the PPB, profit shares attributed but not payable immediately after the close of the year that produced them REG-R6. Three more shape the general account behind the fund without appearing in this model: the réserve de capitalisation, the provision pour risque d'exigibilité (one third of any net overall unrealised depreciation on the exposed assets) REG-R7, and the provision pour aléas financiers, whose mechanics are recorded from a retrieved text but whose current article reference is unverified after the 2016 recodification REG-R8 REG-R9.

Contract law and information. Art. L132-21 requires the contract to state how the surrender, transfer and paid-up values are computed, forbids reduction charges against the mathematical provision, permits avances up to the surrender value and caps surrender settlement at two months R7 REG-R31. Art. L132-22 fixes the annual statement’s contents, including “le rendement garanti et la participation aux bénéfices techniques et financiers”, and requires the insurer to publish average guaranteed returns, average charge rates and the average net return served, contract by contract, within 90 business days of 31 December, keeping it online five years REG-R31. Arts. A132-4 and A132-8 prescribe the note d'information and the one-page encadré, including PB percentages and charges in four categories with maximum amounts or percentages REG-R30 — which is why the retrieved notices give maxima and not levels, and why every charge level here is either a contract maximum or std. Renunciation is 30 full calendar days with a thirty-day repayment obligation REG-R29 [S2] [S6] [S9], and the minimum surrender values of the first eight years must appear in the notice, as they do in every notice retrieved [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4].

Macroprudential and prudential. Art. L631-2-1 5° ter gives the HCSF the surrender-limitation power described above and 5° bis lets it modulate PPB constitution and release R8 REG-R13. French insurers are supervised under Solvabilité II as transposed into the Code des assurances; technical provisions are a best estimate — the probability-weighted average of future cash flows discounted at the relevant risk-free term structure — plus a risk margin REG-R4, and EIOPA publishes those term structures monthly with the volatility adjustment, the matching-adjustment fundamental spreads and the ultimate forward rate REG-R5. The Solvency II treatment of the euro fund’s future discretionary benefits — the PPB and the discretionary share of the credited rate — of management actions and of the time value of the capital guarantee could not be read from a retrieved instrument: EUR-Lex returned an empty body and then HTTP 202 with zero bytes R18, and the cross-product entries record the same block REG-R2. All of it is unverified in this library, and no cost-of-capital rate, lapse shock or expense-inflation rule here rests on a retrieved text REG-R2.

Mortality basis. Art. A335-1 permits exactly two kinds of table: homologated tables by sex, built on insured populations for annuity contracts and on INSEE data for other contracts, or an undertaking’s own experience table certified by an independent actuary REG-R23. For a euro fund the death benefit is the account value, so mortality drives the timing of dénouement rather than the amount; the reference decrement table is a std proxy built from the freely redistributable INSEE series REG-R24, and TH 00-02 / TF 00-02 are cited by name and article REG-R23 but not shipped.

Taxation. Income taxation of surrenders sits at art. 125-0 A CGI R10 REG-R40 and art. 200 A CGI R11; the social levies and their au fil de l'eau timing on euro-denominated rights at art. L136-7 CSS R9; death taxation at arts. 990 I and 757 B CGI R12 R13 REG-R41. The EUR 150 000 premium threshold above which the 7.5% rate stops applying to the excess was verified in art. 200 A R11 but not in the text of art. 125-0 A retrieved for the cross-product library, where it is unverified REG-R40. Tax is a behavioural driver here rather than a model output: a projection that puts no surrender spike at policy year eight has ignored it REG-R40.

Guarantee fund and professional standards. The Fonds de garantie des assurances de personnes compensates up to EUR 70 000 per insured, adherent or beneficiary per company, whatever the number of contracts [S6]; Suravenir contributes annually under arts. L423-1 et seq. [S5]. Model documentation sits under the Institut des actuaires’ NPA 2, a category-3 recommended practice in force since 1 January 2016 applying “à tout modèle actuariel” under a proportionality principle REG-R44. French listed insurers report under IFRS 17 from 2023; the fonds en euros is the archetypal direct-participating contract, but the variable fee approach’s mechanics were not read from the standard text and are unverified REG-R45.