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 French individual immediate life annuity — the rente viagère immédiate. It does not describe any single insurer’s product. Facts carrying a source tag — [S#] (primary product documents) and [R#] (regulatory/actuarial references), both numbered per _research/rente-viagere.md and resolved in sources.md (same directory) — were extracted from the cited document. [REG-R#] tags resolve against the cross-product reference library references/regulatory-and-actuarial-references.md (its own R-numbering, frozen at R1–R49 and distinct from the product research file’s). Values marked std are standardizations introduced for the reference implementation; each std table row carries a numbered footnote giving the rationale and, where the research recorded one, the observed range across insurers. Facts the research file could not verify are flagged unverified here too. French terms of art are kept in French and glossed on first use. Amounts are in euros and this document uses the English decimal point and thousands comma; quoted French text keeps its original comma decimal. The mechanics anchor is the Suravenir PER/PERP annuity [S2] [S3], with Carac [S1], Spirica [S4], CNP [S5] and Préfon-Retraite [S6] as the informative departures.

Product overview and market role#

A rente viagère immédiate is the exchange of a capital constitutif (the converting capital) for a stream of arrérages (annuity instalments) payable while the annuitant lives. The same liability arises three ways and the mechanics differ only at the edges: as a standalone single-premium annuity contract [S1] [S8]; as the liquidation en rente of a retirement wrapper — a PER, an older PERP or Madelin, or a points régime [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5] [S6] [S9]; or as the sortie en rente of an assurance vie. No assurance vie notice describing that last route was retrieved, so its contract-specific detail is unverified; the pricing and payment mechanics below are common to all three. The PER route has a statutory anchor: a plan must offer the possibility of acquiring a rente viagère at maturity with a reversion option, and the versements obligatoires compartment must be liquidated as an annuity REG-R34 [S4].

Four structural facts hold across every retrieved carrier and a model must not parametrize them away. Payment is terme échu — in arrears [S1 Art. C13] [S2] [S3] [S5] [S6] [S7 Art. 6.3] [S9]; no retrieved French document offers a terme à échoir option, a real difference from the UK market where both conventions are standard. There is no contractual indexation: no inflation-linked, LPI-equivalent or fixed-percentage escalating annuity appears anywhere in [S1]–[S9], and uprating is revalorisation out of the participation aux bénéfices (profit sharing) — discretionary, annual and non-negative, not an escalation guarantee. There is no surrender after liquidation: “les rentes viagères immédiates ou en cours de service ne peuvent comporter ni réduction ni rachat” R8, verbatim, the capital being aliéné (alienated), with the statutory commutation of a small annuity as the single exception R9 R10. And the mortality basis is annuitant-experience, generational and floored: the homologated tables are TGH05 (male) and TGF05 (female), applicable to contrats de rente viagère from 1 January 2007 R1 art. 2, verbatim REG-R21, and an insurer using its own certified table may never price an annuity below what the appropriate homologated table would give R3, verbatim — a one-sided floor, and the single most important structural fact about French annuity pricing.

On top of those sits the mechanic with no counterpart in the UK or US siblings: the tariff must be unisex while the mandatory tables remain sex-distinct. Where a single homologated table is applied to all lives it must be “la table appropriée conduisant au tarif le plus prudent” R3, verbatim — for an annuity, the female table TGF05. This composite therefore prices every life on TGF05 and carries the resulting systematic surplus on male lives back to policyholders through the participation aux bénéfices, which is what the ministry says happens in practice R17 R18.

The representative design is Suravenir’s [S2] [S3]: single premium; monthly, terme échu; priced on both heads’ ages, the annuitant-experience generation table in force at the effective date and an explicit taux technique; a mutually exclusive option set of réversion, annuités garanties and rentes par paliers; no surrender; statutory commutation below the art. A. 160-2 floor; annual discretionary uplift at 31 December; and a charge structure of a percentage on the instalment plus a percentage on the annuity fund. The chassis choice is std.

Representative specification#

Product identity and issue rules#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Design type	Single-premium immediate lifetime annuity on one head, capital aliéné, participating through revalorisation	[S2] [S3] [S8]; chassis std (1)
Legal wrapper	Standalone contrat de rente viagère, or the liquidation en rente of a PER / PERP / points régime	[S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5] [S6] [S8] [S9] REG-R34
Premium	One capital constitutif at conversion; no additions afterwards	[S2] [S3] [S8]
Minimum capital	€30,000	[S8]; adoption std (2)
Entry-age band	50–85 at the effective date	[S1 Art. C5, C8, C12]; adoption std (3)
Minimum annuity issued	€40 per month. Préfon adds the €120-per-quarter equivalent and measures the floor before the reversion and dependency options [S6 Art. 5.2.3 b)]; AG2R publishes the monthly figure alone, with no quarterly equivalent and no measurement basis [S8]	[S6 Art. 5.2.3 b)] [S8]
Statutory commutation threshold	€110 per month including majorations légales, multiplied by the number of months in the payment period	R10 art. A. 160-2
Effective date	1st day of the civil month following receipt of the complete liquidation file	[S2] [S3] [S6]
Irrevocability	The annuity election and every option chosen with it are irrevocable	[S1 Art. C15, C16] [S2 pt 10.e] [S3 pt 11.d] [S4 §7.3] [S5] [S6 Art. 5.4.3] [S8]
Surrender value	None, ever	R8, verbatim [S1 Art. C3]
Currency	EUR	[S1]–[S9]
Renonciation	30 calendar days, full refund within 30 days	[S1 Art. C7] [S7 encadré §1] REG-R29
Prescription	2 years; 10 years where the beneficiary is not the member	[S1 Art. C20]

Footnotes to std rows:

The Suravenir annuity [S2] [S3] is the cleanest structural representative of the eight retrieved carriers: it publishes the option set, the payment convention, the technical rate, the charge structure and the profit-sharing rule in operative terms. Carac’s capital réservé fork [S1] and CNP’s dependency doubling [S5] are genuine alternative shapes and are documented under Variations rather than defaulted.
Only one retrieved document states a minimum capital at all [S8]. Carac sets its minimum by board decision [S1]; the wrapper-exit contracts inherit the wrapper’s accumulated value and state none [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5] [S6]. €30,000 is adopted so the model has a bounded premium domain.
Only Carac publishes an entry-age band (50–85, top-ups to 85, minimum age 50 for entrée en jouissance) [S1 Art. C5, C8, C12]. The wrapper-exit contracts state no band, the liquidation age being governed by the wrapper [S2]–[S6] REG-R34. 50–85 is adopted so the model has a bounded issue-age domain; it also keeps every model point inside the generational tables’ usable region, where the construction document states rates exist for age + generation > 1995 R19.

Conversion basis — table, taux technique and the taux de rente#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Mortality tables	TGH05 (male) / TGF05 (female), homologated by the arrêté du 1er août 2006, mandatory for contrats de rente viagère from 1 January 2007	R1 art. 2, verbatim REG-R21
Table nature	Prospective generation tables: a rate is indexed by age and year of birth, so the mortality trend is inside the table and no separate improvement scale applies	R1 R19; ages 0–120, generations 1900–2005 R25, secondary
Permitted alternative	The undertaking’s own table, by sex or not, built on its own or demographically equivalent experience and certified by an actuary independent of the undertaking	R3, verbatim REG-R23
Experience-table floor	For rentes viagères, a tariff on an experience table may never be lower than the tariff the appropriate homologated table would give	R3, verbatim
Single-table rule (unisex)	Where one homologated table is applied to all lives it must be “la table appropriée conduisant au tarif le plus prudent” — for an annuity, TGF05	R3, verbatim R25, secondary
Tariff table used here	TGF05 for every life, regardless of sex	R3 R17 R18; adoption std (4)
Taux technique (technical rate)	0.00%	[S2 pt 10.d] [S3 pt 11.e]
Regulatory ceiling on the taux technique	min(3.50%, 60% × TME six-month average), on a 0.25-point ladder floored at zero, sticky to ±0.10 / ±0.35 point moves, three months to implement	R4 R5 REG-R17
Ceiling level in force	2.00%, monthly reference TME 3.90%, at 31 July 2026	R21, secondary tracker (5)
Taux de rente (annuity rate) at age 65	3.30% of the capital per annum, unisex basis	std (6)
Same rate on the male table TGH05	3.73% — i.e. a male priced on his own table would receive 13.0% more income	std (7)

The Code does not create a unisex table; it forces the single table used to be the more prudent of the two sex-specific ones R3. The chain runs directive 2004/113/CE → the CJEU ruling of 1 March 2011 in case C-236/09 Test-Achats → the loi du 26 juillet 2013 amending art. L. 111-7 R17 R18; the eight-year statement itself — that the resulting surplus must in substantial part return to policyholders — is made in R17 alone. R18 cites art. A. 132-11 for the redistribution and describes unisex pricing as “mutual solidarity”, but states neither the horizon nor “in substantial part”. The judgment was not retrieved R16, so the cut-off convention is unverified — the boundary is rendered “après le 20 décembre 2012” R18 R25 and “21 décembre 2012” R17, and the model must not depend on the boundary day. No retrieved product document names TGH05 or TGF05 explicitly; the table is always referenced generically [S2] [S3] [S7 Art. 5.3].
A commercial tracker, not an official publication; an order of magnitude, to be re-derived from the TME before being relied on R21. The ACPR’s own study could not be fetched (HTTP 403, two attempts); its abstract reports that zero-technical-rate contract families dominate every commercialisation cohort R20.
No French insurer publishes an annuity rate card — no taux de rente, no annuity factor, no specimen annuity anywhere in [S1]–[S9] — and Spirica states expressly that “L’Assureur ne garantit pas le montant de la Rente avant la liquidation sous forme de rente” [S4 §7.3.2.3]. 3.30% is therefore a standardization, but not an arbitrary one: at a 0.00% taux technique [S2] [S3] the rate is the reciprocal of the annuity factor, i.e. of residual life expectancy. R19 publishes TGF05 life expectancy at 60 of 30.6 years (generation 1936), 40.4 (2005) and 32.0 for a female annuitant aged 60 in 2006 (generation 1946); linear interpolation in generation reproduces that third point to 0.02 years and gives 34.15 for generation 1961. Stepping to 65 on a std five-year survival of 0.985 gives a factor of about 29.63 and a raw rate of 3.375%; 3.30% carries an implicit loading of about 2% at a level no source publishes.
Same construction on the male figures of R19 — 26.8 (1936), 36.7 (2005), 28.4 at 60 in 2006 — giving 30.39 years at 60 for generation 1961, a factor of about 26.25 at 65 on a std five-year survival of 0.970, and 3.73% after the same loading. Deputies put the male disadvantage at “environ 15 %” R17 and “jusqu’à 20 %” R18; both are the questioners’ assertions, not the ministry’s, and both are unverified. The 13.0% here is of the same order and is std, not a market observation.

Payment of the arrérages#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Payment frequency	Monthly	[S2] [S3] [S6]; representative choice std (8)
Payment timing	Terme échu (in arrears)	[S1] [S2] [S3] [S5] [S6] [S7] [S9]
First instalment	End of the first civil month of service; the annuity takes effect on the 1st of a civil month	[S2] [S3] [S6]
Cessation	Instalments “cessent d’être dus à compter du premier jour du mois qui suit le décès” — the arrérage of the month of death is due in full	[S6]
Prorata d’arrérages	Arrears accrued and unpaid at death belong to the heirs; an overpayment is owed by the estate	[S1 Art. C17.2] [S7 Art. 7.3]
De-minimis on the prorata	€15 in both directions	[S1 Art. C17.2]
Proof of life	Annual attestation valant certificat de vie plus a birth extract under three months old, returned within 30 days, failing which service is suspended from the following month until it arrives	[S2] [S3]; [S1 Art. C13] [S7 Art. 6.3]
Periodicity change	The insurer may change the payment periodicity, including for annuities already in payment	[S7 Art. 6.3]
Terme à échoir	Not offered by any retrieved carrier; retained as an unobserved model variant only	std (9)

Observed frequencies: monthly [S2] [S3] [S6]; quarterly [S5] [S7] [S9]; semi-annual only, on 30 June and 31 December [S1 Art. C13]; the annuitant’s choice of all four [S4] [S8]. Monthly is modal among the wrapper-exit contracts and is the finest grid, so every coarser frequency is a restriction of it. The commutation threshold scales with the periodicity R10, so frequency is not a presentational choice.
Every retrieved contract pays in arrears. The advance convention is kept as a switch only because the payout chassis is shared with the UK and US siblings; it is not a French product feature, and the one shipped model point that sets it — point 11, at a 1.00% taux technique — exists to exercise the branch, not to represent an observed contract. On that branch the prorata d’arrérages is zero std: the instalment covering the month of death was paid at the start of it, so nothing has accrued unpaid.

Charges#

Three distinct deductions exist, and every retrieved contract uses one, two or none of them. The terminology is not standardized — “frais sur arrérages de rentes”, “frais de quittances”, “frais de gestion sur arrérages” and “frais de transformation en rente” all denote a deduction from the instalment R24 — so a model reads each contract’s own definition rather than a market label.

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Frais d’arrérages (per instalment)	3.00% of each gross quittance d’arrérages	[S5 encadré] [S7 Art. 17.3]; adoption std (10)
Frais sur encours de rentes (annual, on the annuity fund)	0.80% a year	[S2]; adoption std (11)
Where the frais sur encours bite	On the provision mathématique backing the annuity, reducing the profit-sharing base — not the guaranteed annuity	[S1 Art. C9] [S2] [S3] [S5] [S6] [S7]
Cap expressed in social-security units	Spirica caps any annuity-service fee at 1% of the Plafond Mensuel de Sécurité Sociale per instalment while setting the rate itself at 0%	[S4 §7.3.2.3]
Entry charge on the capital	Out of scope: the capital modelled is the amount actually applied to the annuity, net of any entry charge	[S1] [S6] [S7 Art. 17.1]

Observed frais d’arrérages: 3% maximum per instalment [S5 encadré]; 3% as frais de transformation en rente [S7 Art. 17.3]; 0.00% at Suravenir [S2] [S3], Spirica [S4], Préfon [S6: “Il n’y a pas de frais prélevés sur les rentes servies”] and Carac [S1 encadré: “Autres frais: néant”]; named without a figure at AG2R [S8]. The press reports “around 3%”, or a flat €2–5 per instalment at one insurer R23 [R24, both secondary, 2 April 2015 — unverified]. The composite takes 3% because a non-zero rate exercises the mechanic; zero is a parameter setting, not a different engine.
Observed frais sur encours de rentes: 0.80% [S2]; 0.68% [S3]; 1% maximum a year on the capitaux constitutifs de rente [S5]; 2.3% maximum on the annuity support [S4]; 0.55% on provisions mathématiques at 31 December [S1 Art. C9]; 0.50% a year on managed savings [S7 Art. 17.2]; 0.70% maximum of technical provisions plus 2% of the net financial income of the PTS assets [S6 Art. 12]. Press range 0.60%–0.90% R23, secondary. 0.80% is the modal published figure among the wrapper-exit contracts.

Revalorisation of the annuity in payment#

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Mechanism	Annual participation aux bénéfices credited to the annuities in payment, increasing the annuity for the remainder of its life	[S2 pt 10.f] [S3] [S4 §7.3.2.3]
Date	31 December each year; the uplift reaches instalments payable from the following 1 January	[S2 pt 10.f]; the 1 January application is a std convention (12)
First-year pro-rating	Annuities in service for less than one year at 1 January are revalorised pro rata temporis from the effective date to 31 December	[S3]
Contractual floor	Zero — every retrieved formulation is non-negative	[S1 Art. C11] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S7 encadré §3–4]
Guarantee status	None. A discretionary increase is not an escalation guarantee, and no retrieved contract promises a rate or a formula in advance	[S1]–[S7]; see also the ceilings on rates that may be guaranteed in advance R6 REG-R18, whose percentages are unverified
Profit-sharing account	Built for the rentes en cours de service under point III of art. A. 132-11, “en incluant le résultat technique généré par ces mêmes rentes”; the attribution is “100 % du solde créditeur du compte de participation aux bénéfices”	[S3, verbatim] R7 REG-R15
Statutory frame	A life insurer must share technical and financial profits; sums placed in the provision pour participation aux bénéfices must reach policyholders within eight financial years	REG-R14 R7 art. A. 132-16, verbatim REG-R16
Assumed rate	1.50% a year	std (13)

[S2] fixes the credit date (“Chaque année, au 31 décembre, les rentes servies sont majorées de la participation aux bénéfices”) but no retrieved document says which instalment first carries the increase. The composite applies it from 1 January, so the December instalment of the crediting year is paid at the old level; the alternative reading is a documented ambiguity, not a modeled option.
No retrieved document publishes a revalorisation rate, formula or history. The rate is discretionary, fed by the annuities’ own technical result including the TGF05 prudence margin [S3] R17 and reduced by the frais sur encours [S1] [S2] [S5]; 1.50% is a round placeholder between the 0.00% taux technique and the 2.00% ceiling R21, with the floor of zero as the only cited bound. A points régime has no contractual profit sharing at all and moves annuity levels through the valeur de service du point [S6].

Options elected at conversion#

All options are elected at conversion, are irrevocable, and are not cumulative at the anchor carrier: “les options ne sont pas cumulatives et … le choix est irrévocable” [S2 pt 10.e] [S3 pt 11.d].

Option	Representative rule	Basis
Réversion (survivor continuation)	A named reversionary receives a taux de réversion δ of “la rente atteinte à la date du décès”, for life, from the 1st day of the month or quarter following death [S6] — the 1st day following death at [S1 Art. C12]	[S2] [S3] [S1 Art. C12] [S6 Art. 5.4.3]
Available reversion rates	Any percentage from 1% to 100%	[S2] [S3]; representative snapshot 60% std (14)
Cost of the reversion	A definitive coefficient on the annuitant’s own annuity, keyed on the reversion rate and the age difference by birth-year millésime	[S6, published table]; adoption std (15)
Definitiveness	The reduction stands even if the reversionary predeceases the annuitant	[S6 Art. 5.4.3, verbatim]
Recalculation	Where the surviving spouse or PACS partner at death is not the one named at liquidation, the annuity is recalculated on the beneficiary’s age at the date of death	[S2] [S3]; out of model scope std (16)
Annuités garanties (guaranteed period)	Instalments continue to the designated beneficiaries for the balance of the term if the annuitant dies inside it, at the same amount; if the annuitant survives the term the annuity continues for life with no further beneficiary	[S2] [S3] [S4]
Guaranteed-period range	Minimum 5 years; maximum the lesser of 25 years and the annuitant’s life expectancy at the effective date minus 5 years; chosen in 5-year steps	[S2] [S3] [S4 §7.3.2.2] [S9] (17)
Guarantee vs reversion	Mutually exclusive	[S2] [S3]; representative rule std (18)
Rente par paliers (stepped annuity)	The annuity is a level-within-step function of duration, the first step running 5 or 10 years	[S2 pt 10.e] [S3 pt 11.d]
Published paliers schemes	Increasing: 100% → 200%, or 100% → 125% (equal second step) → 150%. Decreasing: 100% → 50%, or 100% → 75% (equal second step) → 50%	[S2] [S3]
Rente dépendance (dependency doubling)	Out of representative scope	[S5] [S6]; scope std (19)
Indexation	Not offered by any retrieved carrier	[S1]–[S9]

Observed reversion menus: 1%–100% free-form [S2] [S3]; 50%–150% in 10-point steps, or 50%–100% when combined with guaranteed annuities [S4 §7.3.2.2]; 100 / 80 / 60% [S5]; 60 / 80 / 100% [S6] [S9]; 50 / 60 / 100% with the reversionary aged 50–85 [S1 Art. C16]; 5%–100% plus a réversion majorée to 200% [S8]. 60% appears in five of the eight and 100% in all eight; 60% is the snapshot because it is modal and because the only published cost table [S6] is keyed on it. Réversion croisée appears in no retrieved document — unverified.
Préfon-Retraite publishes the only age-difference coefficient table found [S6 Art. 5.4.3], reproduced in technical-notes.md; CRH publishes flat coefficients of 92.5 / 90 / 87.5% for 60 / 80 / 100% with no age-difference dimension [S9]; Carac says only that the reduction follows “un tarif spécial établi selon la réglementation en vigueur” [S1 Art. C16]. Adopting the Préfon table is std: it was built for a points régime and its coefficients apply to points, not to a euro annuity.
Modeling a change of spouse between liquidation and death needs marriage-state modeling a single-policy model point cannot carry. A named reversionary with attributes fixed at conversion is the only basis the reference model implements.
Three independent primary documents apply the “life expectancy minus 5 years” cap [S2] [S3] [S4] and one attributes it to art. A. 335-1 [S4]. The retrieved text of A. 335-1 in its 2012–2016 version R2, of its successor A. 132-18 R3 and of all fourteen amending points of the arrêté du 1er août 2006 R1 were checked and do not contain it: observed market practice with an unlocated legal source, unverified as a statutory rule.
Suravenir’s options are not cumulative [S2] [S3]. Spirica sells a combined rente viagère réversible à annuités garanties with two ranked beneficiaries and reversion capped at 100% in that combination [S4]. The exclusive rule is the anchor carrier’s and keeps the death-benefit state machine to a single branch.
CNP doubles the annuity on recognised dependency, electable at liquidation before the 70th birthday and only on a non-reversible annuity, with the definition, pricing and medical selection “en vigueur à la date de liquidation” — not fixed by the contract [S5]. Préfon publishes the whole rider: eligibility under 70; a benefit equal at all times to the annuity served; a monthly contribution deducted from the annuity of 3% (55–60), 4% (61–65) or 5% (66–70) with a 12% expense loading; a 4-ADL plus psychiatric grid scored 0–10 with 6–10 accepted; waiting of one year, three for mental causes, none after an accident; payment from six months after recognition, three if accidental [S6 Art. 5.4.4, Annexe 2]. AG2R doubles with no figures published [S8]. Dependency incidence and duration belong to the dependance product.

Taxation of the arrérages — context, not a liability cash flow#

Policyholder taxation does not enter the insurer’s liability cash flows and is recorded for completeness.

Parameter	Representative value	Basis
Regime for an annuity bought with a capital	Rente viagère à titre onéreux (RVTO): only a fraction of each instalment is taxable, fixed once and for all by the annuitant’s age at entrée en jouissance	R13 CGI art. 158, 6 R15
Taxable fractions	70% under 50; 50% from 50 to 59; 40% from 60 to 69; 30% at 70 and over	R13; corroborated by [S7 fiscal annexe] and [S8]
Fixing the age	For an immediate annuity, the contract date or the date the funds are handed over; for a deferred annuity, the date payments actually begin. For a spousal reversion the elder spouse’s age applies throughout, before and after the first death	R14
Regime for a retirement annuity funded by deducted contributions	Rente viagère à titre gratuit: taxed as a pension after the 10% abatement, capped at €3,850 per household and floored at €393. PER compartments C1 → RVTG, C1bis → RVTO, C3 → RVTG and annuity-only	R13 art. 158, 5-a R15 [S2 tax table] [S6 annexe fiscale]
Social levies	RVTO: 17.20% (CSG 9.2% + CRDS 0.5% + solidarity levy) on the taxable fraction only. RVTG: CSG 8.3% / 6.6% / 3.8% or exempt, CRDS 0.5%, CASA 0.3%	[S6 annexe fiscale III] [S2] [S7]
Conversion of an assurance vie into an annuity	Whether accumulated gains are taxed at conversion is unverified — no retrieved document covers it	—

Contractual mechanics#

Conversion of the capital#

The capital constitutif C is converted once, at the effective date, into a gross annual annuity. The retrieved documents agree on the inputs and never on the output. Suravenir lists them at point 10.d: the adherent’s age; the reversion beneficiary’s age where applicable; the options and parameters chosen; “la table de mortalité des rentiers en vigueur à la date d’effet de la rente”; and “un taux d’intérêt technique de 0,00 %” [S2]. Spirica adds the Valeur Atteinte net of levies, the dates of birth of both heads, the periodicity, the number of guaranteed annuities and “le taux d’intérêt technique en vigueur” [S4 §7.3.2.3]; La France Mutualiste’s barème “tient compte … des tables prospectives de génération et du taux d’intérêt technique en vigueur” and may change in-year if either moves [S7 Art. 5.3]; CNP converts on “les bases techniques en vigueur au moment de la demande de liquidation” [S5].

Two things follow. The dates of birth, not the ages, are the pricing keys: the table is generational, so the annuitant’s millésime selects the column and the age selects the row. And the annuity is not guaranteed before liquidation [S4 §7.3.2.3] — the conversion rate is a pricing snapshot, not a contractual promise, so every taux de rente in this library is std. Where an option is elected the gross annuity is reduced by a definitive coefficient; for réversion Préfon’s published table [S6 Art. 5.4.3] runs from 0.93 (reversionary eight or more years older, 60% reversion) down to 0.24 (45 or more years younger, 100%) and is reproduced in technical-notes.md.

Payment of the arrérages, and what death does to the last one#

The annuity takes effect on the 1st day of a civil month [S2] [S3] [S6] and is paid terme échu. Instalments “cessent d’être dus à compter du premier jour du mois qui suit le décès” [S6] — so the arrérage of the month of death is due in full, and on a monthly frequency the estate receives one whole instalment for the month in which the annuitant died. On a coarser frequency the same rule produces a stub: arrears accrued and unpaid at death belong to the heirs, an overpayment is owed by the estate, and Carac applies a €15 de-minimis in both directions [S1 Art. C17.2] [S7 Art. 7.3]. This is the opposite default from the UK sibling, where an arrears policy “without proportion” pays nothing for the final partial period; in France there is no “proportion” option to elect, because the prorata d’arrérages is the rule.

Payment is conditional on proof of life: an annual attestation valant certificat de vie plus a birth extract under three months old, returned within 30 days, failing which the annuity is suspended from the following month until it arrives [S2] [S3] [S1 Art. C13].

Revalorisation out of the participation aux bénéfices#

The statutory obligation is to share technical and financial profits with policyholders REG-R14; the mechanics live at arts. A. 132-10 to A. 132-17 R7 REG-R15. The minimum participation aux bénéfices for a financial year is determined globally, not contract by contract, from a compte de participation aux résultats credited with the underwriting elements, 85% of the balance of a financial account and the reinsurance balance, the insurer retaining the greater of 10% of the credit balance and 4.5% of annual premiums R7 REG-R15 — that last clause was returned as a paraphrase and is unverified. Sums placed in the provision pour participation aux bénéfices must reach the provision mathématique or the policyholders “au cours des huit exercices suivant celui au titre duquel elles ont été portées” R7 art. A. 132-16, verbatim REG-R16.

How that reaches the arrérages is stated operatively only once, and it is the sentence this composite is built on [S3, verbatim]:

Chaque année, Suravenir établit le compte de participation aux bénéfices des rentes en cours de service conformément au point III de l’article A. 132-11 du Code des assurances en incluant le résultat technique généré par ces mêmes rentes. La participation aux bénéfices attribuée chaque année aux rentes de l’actif isolé du contrat est égale à 100 % du solde créditeur du compte de participation aux bénéfices.

Two consequences. The annuities’ own mortality surplus — including the TGF05 prudence margin carried by every male life under the unisex rule — flows back into the annuities rather than into shareholders’ funds, which is the mechanism the ministry describes R17. And the frais sur encours de rentes reduce that account, so they reduce the revalorisation and never the guaranteed annuity [S1] [S2] [S5] [S6] [S7].

The increase is credited at 31 December [S2 pt 10.f], pro rata temporis from the effective date for annuities in service less than a year at 1 January [S3], and is non-negative in every retrieved formulation. A discretionary increase is not an escalation guarantee. What may be guaranteed in advance is capped separately, at the lower of 150% of the maximum technical rate and the higher of 120% of that maximum and 110% of the average rates credited over the two preceding years, for at least six months and at most to the end of the following financial year R6 REG-R18 — unverified as to the exact percentages. Art. A. 132-3 came back as a structured summary rather than verbatim text, and the research flags these percentages in the same breath as the A. 132-11 retained share, to be re-read before any of them is relied on. Nothing in this model depends on them: ν is a std scenario input and no rate is guaranteed in advance here.

Réversion, annuités garanties, rente par paliers#

If réversion is elected, on the annuitant’s death a named reversionary receives δ × “la rente atteinte à la date du décès” for life [S2] [S3], starting from the 1st day of the “month or quarter” following death [S6] — the only retrieved dating of the reversion start, and a disjunction rather than a single rule; Carac dates it the 1st day following death [S1 Art. C12]. On a monthly terme échu basis the two limbs coincide, and the first reversion instalment is paid at the end of the month after the month of death, immediately after the prorata d’arrérages has settled the month of death. The two never overlap and never leave a gap. At a coarser frequency they part, and the composite reads the monthly limb — a std choice, recorded in the technical notes, that no retrieved document settles. The election reduces the annuitant’s own annuity by a definitive coefficient: “Le choix de la réversion implique une réduction définitive, même si le bénéficiaire de la réversion vient à décéder antérieurement à l’Affilié(e)” [S6 Art. 5.4.3, verbatim]. If the reversionary dies first the annuitant’s reduced annuity simply continues and no reversion is ever paid. Beneficiary rules vary — spouse, PACS partner or cohabitant [S1]; spouse or PACS partner by default, another named person otherwise but served only from age 25 [S6] — and Carac may refuse the option if it would drop either annuity below €77 a year [S1 Art. C16].

If annuités garanties are elected, the annuity is paid to the annuitant and, on death within the term, to the definitively designated beneficiaries for the balance of the term at the same amount [S2] [S3] [S4]; if the annuitant survives the term, “le versement de la rente se poursuit jusqu’à son décès, sans autre bénéficiaire d’annuités garanties, ni de réversion possible” [S2] [S3]. It is an annuity-certain floor on one stream, not a second stream — the same shape as the UK sibling’s guarantee period. Commutation of the remaining guaranteed instalments to a lump sum is not offered by any retrieved French contract [S2] [S3] [S4]; that this holds market-wide is unverified.

A rente par paliers is a level-within-step function of duration: Suravenir’s four fixed schemes with a first step of 5 or 10 years [S2 pt 10.e] [S3 pt 11.d], or Spirica’s free-form version where “Chacune des deux premières périodes de versement est limitée à 10 ans” and “Le nombre de majorations ou de diminutions est au maximum de 2” [S4 §7.3.2.2]. It is not escalation: nothing compounds and the schedule is fixed at conversion.

No surrender, and the small-annuity commutation#

“Les assurances temporaires en cas de décès ainsi que les rentes viagères immédiates ou en cours de service ne peuvent comporter ni réduction ni rachat” R8, verbatim; Carac restates it in the contract [S1 Art. C3]. Once the annuity is liquidated the capital is gone: no surrender value at any duration, no valeur de réduction, no transfer. The statutory early-release cases at art. L. 132-23 belong to the accumulation phase of a retirement contract and do not survive liquidation R8, as does the 5% penalty a capitaux réservés deferred contract charges before its tenth anniversary [S7 Art. 15].

Art. L. 160-5 lets an insurer, “nonobstant toutes dispositions contractuelles contraires”, transform or buy back annuities whose quittances d’arrérages fall below a minimum fixed by arrêté R9, verbatim. The current figure is €110 a month, “en y incluant le montant des majorations légales”, under art. A. 160-2 in force since 22 July 2023; for longer periodicities the threshold is “multiplié par le nombre de mois inclus dans la période de paiement” — €330 a quarter, €660 a half-year, €1,320 a year R10. Art. A. 160-2-1, the PER-specific twin at €100 a month in force from 1 July 2021 to 22 July 2023, is abrogated and the two regimes merged R10. The buy-back barème values the annuity on the provision mathématique computed with the tables and rates of the règlement ANC n° 2015-11 du 26 novembre 2015 R10 art. A. 160-3, and several contracts with the same insurer may be grouped to reach the threshold, the beneficiary then choosing between rachat and transformation R10 art. A. 160-4.

Contracts implement it as an election at liquidation, not as an in-force option: “Lorsque le montant de la rente est inférieur au minimum défini à l’article A. 160-2 … la liquidation des droits pourra, avec l’accord de l’assuré, s’effectuer sous la forme d’un versement unique en capital” [S2]; the same at [S3]; CNP applies it to the reversion annuity too, with the réversataire’s agreement [S5]. Régime-specific floors sit above the statutory one and are not it: Préfon issues only annuities of at least €40 a month, measured before the reversion and dependency options [S6]; AG2R’s minimum is €40 a month [S8]; CRH pays a lump sum below 500 points of reversion entitlement [S9]; Carac’s option-level floor is €77 a year [S1 Art. C16]. The consequence for a reference model is that a model point whose gross monthly quittance is at or below €110 is not an annuity to project — it is a capital payment at outset.

Riders and options#

A rente viagère has no riders in the US sense. Everything is elected at conversion, priced into the barème, and irrevocable thereafter [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5] [S6] [S8].

In scope (the representative option set): payment frequency [S2] [S3] [S4] [S6] [S8]; réversion at δ ≤ 100% with a definitive coefficient on the annuitant’s own annuity [S2] [S3] [S6]; annuités garanties of 5 to min(25, e − 5) years in 5-year steps [S2] [S3] [S4] [S9], mutually exclusive with réversion [S2] [S3]; the four Suravenir paliers schemes with a first step of 5 or 10 years [S2] [S3].

Out of scope (listed for completeness):

Rente dépendance — the doubling of the annuity on recognised dependency, offered by CNP [S5], Préfon [S6] and AG2R [S8]; belongs to the dependance product.
Capital réservé — a death capital of at least 70% of the sums paid in that mode, net of entry charges and plus accrued bonification, in exchange for a lower annuity [S1 encadré, Art. C3, C17.1] [S7 encadré §2] — a genuine second product shape, the French analogue of a return-of-premium annuity, not a rider. With it go the aliénation of reserved capital into a deferred survivor annuity for a spouse aged at least 50 [S7 Art. 10] and Carac’s conversion of a reserved holding to capital aliéné [S1 Art. C15].
Recalculation of the reversion annuity where the surviving spouse at death is not the one named at liquidation [S2] [S3]; réversion majorée to 200% [S8]; réversion croisée (named in no retrieved document — unverified); and Spirica’s combined rente viagère réversible à annuités garanties with two ranked beneficiaries [S4].
Points régimes, whose annuity levels move through the valeur de service du point rather than through a participation aux bénéfices [S6] [S9].
Legacy annuities carrying State majorations légales, uprated by arrêté and which must be included when testing the small-annuity threshold R22 R10 art. A. 160-2.

Variations across insurers#

Feature	Carac RVI [S1]	Suravenir PER/PERP [S2] [S3]	Spirica PER [S4]	CNP PER [S5]	Préfon-Retraite [S6]	AG2R Rente Universelle [S8]
Product shape	standalone immediate annuity (mutuelle)	PER / PERP exit	PER exit	PER exit	points régime, PER-eligible	standalone immediate annuity
Minimum capital / annuity	board-set; option floor €77/yr	statutory A. 160-2 floor	statutory floor (€100 text, pre-2023)	“montant fixé par la réglementation”	€40/month issue floor	€30,000 capital; €40/month
Entry ages	50–85	not stated	not stated	not stated	régime rules; dependency < 70	not stated
Payment frequency	semi-annual only (30 Jun / 31 Dec)	monthly	monthly / quarterly / half-yearly / annual	quarterly	monthly (since 31/07/2023)	monthly / quarterly / half-yearly / annual
Timing	terme échu	terme échu	terme échu	terme échu	terme échu	not stated
Taux technique	referenced, not published	0.00%	in force at conversion, capped by regulation	bases techniques of the day	points régime	not published
Frais d’arrérages	néant	0.00%	0%, capped at 1% PMSS	3% max per instalment	none	named, no figure
Frais sur encours	0.55% on PM	0.80% (PER) / 0.68% (PERP)	2.3% max on the annuity support	1% max/yr on capitaux constitutifs	0.70% max on provisions + 2% of PTS income	not published
Réversion	50 / 60 / 100%; reversionary 50–85; floor €77/yr	1–100%, recalculated on change of spouse	50–150% in 10-point steps (50–100% with guarantees)	100 / 80 / 60%	60 / 80 / 100% with published coefficients	5–100%, majorée to 200%
Annuités garanties	none	5 yrs → min(25, e − 5), 5-yr steps, XOR reversion	≤ e − 5; combinable with reversion	not offered	not offered	offered, durations not published
Rente par paliers	none	four fixed schemes	free-form, ≤ 2 steps, each ≤ 10 yrs	none	none	none
Rente dépendance	none	none	none	doubling, before 70, non-reversible only	doubling, 3/4/5% of the annuity by age band	doubling, no figures
Death benefit otherwise	capital réservé ≥ 70% of net payments	none	none	none	reversion / orphan machinery	capital décès
Revalorisation	annual bonification set by the board	PB at 31 Dec; PERP: 100% of the PB account credit balance including the annuities’ technical result	compte de participation aux résultats	art. 12.2 of the notice	no contractual PB; valeur de service du point	annual, on the euro fund’s return

Why the representative choices were made:

Chassis. Suravenir [S2] [S3] publishes the option set, the payment convention, the technical rate, the charge structure and the profit-sharing rule in operative terms; the others state some of those and never all. Research conclusion; adoption std.
Terme échu and monthly. Not a choice: every retrieved carrier pays in arrears, and monthly is the finest published frequency, so every other frequency is a restriction of the same engine [S1]–[S9].
Reversion XOR guarantee. The anchor carrier’s rule [S2] [S3]. Spirica’s combinable design [S4] is implementable in the same engine by letting the certain-period floor and the reversion stream coexist, with the reversion percentage capped at 100% in that combination; it is documented, not defaulted.
Charges. A non-zero frais d’arrérages (CNP’s 3% [S5]) is taken with Suravenir’s frais sur encours (0.80% [S2]) so that both mechanics are exercised, even though no single retrieved carrier charges both at those levels. An explicit composite; std.
Excluded chassis. Capital réservé [S1] [S7] changes the death-benefit shape entirely — a lower annuity, a death capital of at least 70% of the net sums paid in that mode, and the right to alienate that capital later into a survivor annuity [S7 Art. 10]. Points régimes [S6] [S9] move annuity levels through a valeur de service du point no retrieved document publishes, and Préfon has no contractual profit sharing at all [S6]; their published option-cost tables are used, their annuity mechanics are not. Both are second chassis, not parameters.
Vintage and coverage caveats. CNP’s notice carries no reference code or edition date and was read from a third-party mirror posted in February 2021, so its 3% and 1% charge levels and its 60/80/100% reversion menu are treated as 2020/2021 vintage [S5]. Allianz’s annuity guide could not be read — HTTP 403 on two successive attempts — and nothing from it is cited [S10]. Generali, MACSF, Groupama, Swiss Life France, Malakoff Humanis, Le Conservateur and Garance were not sourced at all; no claim of market-wide coverage is made.

Regulatory context#

Mortality tables. The arrêté du 1er août 2006 homologates TGF05 for female lives and TGH05 for male lives for contrats de rente viagère from 1 January 2007, replacing the generation table homologated in 1993 R1 art. 2, verbatim REG-R21. TH00-02 / TF00-02, homologated by the arrêté du 20 décembre 2005 on INSEE data, apply to “contrats autres que de rente viagère” and are not used to price an annuity R11. Citation hygiene matters here. The arrêté speaks of art. A. 335-1, the then-current numbering; Légifrance now marks A. 335-1 abrogated and serves it only in its 21 December 2012 – 1 January 2016 version R2 REG-R23, the live tariff article being A. 132-18, in force since 7 September 2017 R3. The abrogating instrument and the gap between the two dates were not resolved and are unverified R2. Cite A. 132-18 for the live rule and A. 335-1 only when quoting the arrêté. The annexe article carrying TGF05 is itself marked abrogated as of 1 January 2016, the tables presumably re-annexed elsewhere; the current location was not identified R12 unverified. This library does not redistribute TGH05/TGF05 values: they are cited by name and article, and the decrement CSVs shipped here are std proxies built from public INSEE data REG-R24, anchored so the model’s tariff annuity factor — the female-table factor the unisex rule selects — reproduces the technical notes’ placeholder rate exactly. The anchor is on the tariff side, not the best-estimate side: the two tables are different objects here, and a male life’s best-estimate factor of 26.21 gives 3.73%, not the 3.30% quoted.

How they were built is set out in the technical notes; two properties of that construction matter here. The tables are prospective, so the mortality trend is inside them and no separate improvement scale applies, and the construction lets male projected rates fall below female rates in some cells R19.

Unisex pricing. Art. A. 132-18 permits either homologated tables by sex or the undertaking’s own certified experience tables, then imposes three constraints: a single homologated table applied to all insureds must be the one “conduisant au tarif le plus prudent”; the décalages d’âge correction applies to non-annuity survival contracts; and for rentes viagères an experience-table tariff may never be lower than the homologated-table tariff R3, verbatim. The chain of authority as the ministry states it runs directive 2004/113/CE → the CJEU ruling of 1 March 2011 in case C-236/09 (Test-Achats) → the loi du 26 juillet 2013 amending art. L. 111-7 R17 R18. The judgment was not retrieved R16 and the secondary sources date the boundary inconsistently — “après le 20 décembre 2012” R18 R25 against “une directive du 21 décembre 2012” R17 — so the cut-off convention is unverified. The ministry acknowledges that applying TGF05 to men produces a systematic technical surplus which must in substantial part be returned to policyholders within eight years, and declines to legislate further R17. Contracts under the Code de la mutualité [S1] [S7] sit under a parallel arrêté (du 8 décembre 2006) located but not fetched — unverified whether its table rules are identical.

Technical rate. Tariffs must use a rate at most 75% of the TME on a half-yearly basis and, beyond eight years, at most the lower of 3.50% and 60% of that average, the rate in force at subscription binding R4 REG-R17; the maximum sits on a 0.25-point ladder of origin zero and moves only when the monthly reference rate falls by at least 0.10 point or rises by at least 0.35 point, with three months to implement R5 REG-R17. A lifetime immediate annuity is unambiguously a “beyond eight years” contract, so the binding ceiling is min(3.50%, 60% × TME) — unverified as an inference, since the retrieved text of A. 132-1 contains no annuity-specific paragraph R4. The ceiling stood at 2.00% with a monthly reference TME of 3.90% at 31 July 2026 R21, secondary.

Participation aux bénéfices, surrender and commutation. The profit-sharing obligation is statutory REG-R14; the arithmetic is at arts. A. 132-10 to A. 132-15 and is computed globally rather than contract by contract R7 REG-R15; the eight-year release horizon on the provision pour participation aux bénéfices is at art. A. 132-16 R7, verbatim REG-R16; and point III of art. A. 132-11 is the paragraph a PERP or PER insurer uses to build a separate profit-sharing account for the annuities in payment [S3] R7. Art. L. 132-23 forbids reduction and surrender of immediate and in-payment life annuities R8, verbatim; art. L. 160-5 delegates the buy-back schedule and threshold to an arrêté R9, verbatim; art. A. 160-2 sets that threshold at €110 a month including majorations légales, scaled by the payment periodicity R10. Majorations légales are the State-funded uplifts of legacy annuities under the loi n° 49-420 du 25 mars 1949 and successors, uprated by arrêté with coefficients keyed on the year the annuity originated R22 — not the ordinary commercial revalorisation of a modern annuity.

Prudential, disclosure, professional standards. The French statutory balance sheet carries eleven technical provisions, of which the provision mathématique — the difference between the actuarial present values of the two sides’ commitments, including future management costs — holds an annuity in payment REG-R6. Solvabilité II sits on top: the best estimate is the probability-weighted average of future cash flows discounted at the relevant risk-free term structure — carried here on EIOPA’s authority REG-R4, because neither the directive REG-R1 nor the delegated regulation REG-R2 could be retrieved (both return a WAF challenge), so their article numbers are unverified in this library — with EIOPA publishing the curves monthly REG-R5; nothing product-specific to rentes viagères was retrieved for that layer. The note d’information and the one-page encadré prescribe what must be disclosed, including fees in four categories with maximum amounts or percentages REG-R30 — maxima, not caps: no statutory ceiling on any French life charge appears in the retrieved texts, which is why every charge level here carries a source or a std tag and never a “market standard” claim. The 30-day renonciation right applies before the annuity starts [S1 Art. C7] REG-R29 and is outside the projection. Actuarial work using this model sits under the Institut des actuaires’ NPA 1 and NPA 2, both category-3 recommended practices adopted 15 June 2015 REG-R43 REG-R44; NPA 4, on best-estimate life provisions, was not retrieved and is unverified.