Media kit
November 2025

PORTABILITY REFORM OF ASSURANCE VIE

 

This media kit provides background, verifiable data, expert insights and references for journalists covering the Assurance Vie portability reform.

1. Campaign Summary

This campaign calls for the modernisation of Assurance Vie through DTAV – Droit au Transfert d’Assurance Vie. The reform enables savers to transfer their contracts without losing tax seniority. Assurance Vie holds over €2 trillion and is the largest household savings product in France; yet mobility remains under 1%. The goal is fairness, transparency, and modernisation.

2. Key Facts & Figures

  • Assurance Vie holds EUR 1,989 trillion at end-2024 and exceeded EUR 2,020 trillion in early 2025.

  • Assurance Vie is approximately 17 times larger than PER assets (EUR 113.8 billion mid-2024).

  • Mobility is under 1%: around 303,000 transfers for more than 50 million contracts.

  • Legacy contracts often cost 2 to 3% annually; modern online French contracts range between 0.20 and 1.6%.

  • UK workplace pensions are capped at 0.75%, with average charges near 0.48%.

  • OECD studies show that fee reductions from digitalisation reach clients only where mobility creates competition.

3. Why Now

This is not only a policy debate but a practical issue affecting retirees, expatriates and families who cannot move their savings without sacrificing advantages intended to protect their children.

The Senate voted for portability in 2023, but the reform stalled in the Assemblée Nationale. Rising pension ages, declining replacement rates (COR), inflation, and demographic pressures make reform urgent. Public support can help reopen legislative progress.

4. Why captivity is a problem

Assurance Vie’s lack of portability does more than limit choice. It suppresses competition across an entire segment of the financial system. When savers cannot move freely, providers have no meaningful incentive to reduce fees, modernise their product ranges, or pass on efficiency gains from technology.

In competitive markets, technological progress leads to lower costs for consumers.

In Assurance Vie, decades of low mobility meant that:

  • legacy fee structures remained in place, long after digital platforms dramatically reduced the cost of administering savings

  • euro fund yields fell, yet fees and distribution commissions often did not

  • modern low-cost instruments (ETFs, ESG options, open-architecture funds) were slow to be integrated into older contracts

  • closed or soft-closed funds proliferated, because there was little pressure to maintain a relevant and updated fund universe

  • performance reporting remained opaque, with many savers unaware of the full cost of their contracts

 

This lack of competitive pressure has created a two-tier system:

Ø  modern contracts, typically offered by newer providers, with transparent fees and updated fund ranges

Ø  legacy contracts, still held by millions, where total annual fees of 2 to 3% are common and often poorly explained

 

The Consequences for Savers

         1.       Persistently Higher Fees

In a competitive market, fees fall. In France, where mobility is under 1%, legacy fees persist.

Over long horizons, even a 1% difference in annual charges reduces accumulated capital by nearly 20% (OECD).

2.       Underperformance relative to modern alternatives

Many older Assurance Vie contracts invest heavily in euro funds that struggle to keep pace with inflation.

Meanwhile, modern platforms offer globally diversified portfolios using low-fee ETFs that perform better after costs.

         3.       Limited Innovation

Providers with large captive books have little incentive to invest in new features, improved reporting, or more transparent client interfaces.

         4.       Reduced Consumer Trust

Savers are discouraged when they discover that moving away from high-fee arrangements means sacrificing the advantages they were told to build.

5. What Competition Looks Like in Modern Savings Systems:

Countries with portable long-term savings systems show consistent benefits:

United Kingdom

·      Pension portability created a vibrant market of low-cost providers

·      Major fee reductions across the market (many contracts under 1%)

·      Broad adoption of transparent, digital-first offerings

 Australia (SuperStream)

·      One of the most efficient retirement systems globally

·      Automatic transfer protocols reduced administrative costs

·      Digital consolidation improved saver outcomes and system trust

 United States (401(k) rollovers)

·      Tax treatment follows the saver

·      Intense provider competition drove down index fund fees

·      Major platforms cut costs repeatedly due to competitive pressure

 Ireland (PRSA and ARF transfers)

·      Straightforward rollover rules

·      Clear fee comparisons encouraged providers to simplify structures

Across all of these systems, mobility is a key ingredient: savers can move, so providers compete.

6. MiraClair Wealth Positioning

MiraClair acts as an independent facilitator of a wider movement aligned with consumer associations, modern savings principles, and international best practice. The firm is independent, advises exclusively on third-party Assurance Vie contracts, has no ownership or distribution ties to any insurer, and holds no legacy book to protect. MiraClair therefore advocates solely for transparency, competition, and the protection of savers’ interests.

7. About Joanne Leach

Joanne (“Jo”) Leach is the Managing Partner of MiraClair Wealth and a Chartered Financial Planner, with over fifteen years of experience in cross-border wealth management, investment oversight, and client strategy. She lived and worked in France for 15 years, advising expatriates, international families, and senior professionals on navigating complex financial, tax, and regulatory systems across France, the UK, Luxembourg, and the wider EU.

Her role is to analyse client situations in depth and present the most appropriate, independent solutions based on their objectives, regulatory position, and long-term financial needs. She is known for her clear, analytical approach and her ability to translate complex financial structures into practical, well-structured advice for clients.

She also holds advanced qualifications in cross-border financial planning and has overseen client portfolios under both MiFID II and the Insurance Distribution Directive.

8. Quotable Lines (Joanne Leach)

  • “No saver should remain structurally constrained in an inefficient financial product by the effect of an outdated rule.”

  • “France has one of the least mobile long-term savings markets in Europe, and families bear the direct cost.”

  • “Across most major developed economies, effective long-term savings mobility has become the norm. France now stands apart when it comes to its principal savings product, Assurance Vie.”

  • “More than €2 trillion in household savings should be governed by modern rules, not by structures inherited from the 1990s.”

9. Case Study (anonymised)

The Initial Setup

When Mr Smith moved to France, he opened an account with a major French retail bank. As part of the onboarding process, he chose to establish:

  • A current account

  • A Livret A savings account

  • And an Assurance Vie, into which he invested €150,000

He was provided with extensive contractual documentation to sign, but no written report setting out why this particular investment structure had been selected for him, how it would be managed, or what the full ongoing cost would be over time.

He recalls that a key factor discussed at the time was that, because he was under 70, the structure would allow his children to benefit from favourable inheritance tax treatment in the future.

The “Execution-Only” Structure

In many situations like this, banks classify the process as “execution-only”, meaning:

  • They do not treat the interaction as regulated investment advice

  • The client is legally recorded as having made the investment decision themselves

Where an investment is treated as execution-only:

  • Only terms and conditions and basic fee information must be supplied

  • No formal suitability report is required

  • No written justification for fund selection is necessary

In practice, many clients experience a situation where they feel guided and reassured, while the documentation later records the transaction as non-advised.

Five Years Later: A Review

Five years later, during a routine financial review, we were asked to assess this Assurance Vie alongside Mr Smith’s other investments.

This period had coincided with generally positive market conditions. Despite this, the contract had achieved only modest growth.

On analysis, we found:

  • 50% invested in Euro Funds returning approximately 1.75% per annum

  • 50% invested in an actively managed ethical portfolio, despite there being no recollection of a specific request for an ethical strategy

The total ongoing annual cost was approximately 3% per year.

While French regulations do require that the costs of an Assurance Vie wrapper are disclosed, the full underlying fund management costs are not always presented in a clear and consolidated way, which can make it difficult for clients to understand the true long-term cost impact.

When compared with an alternative Assurance Vie arranged elsewhere, the existing structure was significantly more expensive.

Mr Smith was understandably surprised by the scale of the ongoing charges.

The Age 70 Constraint

By the time this discovery was made, Mr Smith was now over 70.

Under current French rules:

  • Contributions made before 70 may benefit from particularly favourable inheritance tax treatment

  • Contributions made after 70 still benefit from tax advantages, though on less generous terms

This created a difficult dilemma:

  • Remaining in a higher-cost structure to preserve inheritance advantages

  • Or restructuring into a lower-cost solution and losing part of the succession tax benefit for his children

Why This Matters

Mr Smith acted in good faith at every stage:

  • He invested at what was widely considered a key planning age

  • He followed the process presented to him

  • He acted with the intention of protecting his family

Yet years later, he found himself facing a difficult choice — not driven by market forces, but by structural rules around portability, cost transparency and age-based tax treatment.

This is not an isolated experience. It reflects a broader issue around:

  • Limited portability

  • Cost opacity

  • And the long-term consequences of decisions made close to age 70

The Core Issue

Under the current framework, some savers may feel constrained between:

  • Accepting higher long-term costs

  • Or giving up part of the very tax protection they originally sought to secure for their family

That tension lies at the heart of the reform discussion.

10. FAQ for Journalists

  • Is portability technically feasible? – Yes. Transfers use a cash-based mechanism, identical to PER portability. Solvency II already mandates valuation rules, so no new infrastructure is needed.

  • Would this destabilise insurers? – International evidence shows no systemic risk. UK, US, and Australia manage trillions in portable savings without instability.

  • Why are legacy fees still so high? – Low mobility means no competitive pressure. OECD and ESMA confirm France has among the highest retail investment costs in Europe.

  • Do beneficiaries lose protection if the saver transfers? – No. Beneficiary clauses remain intact because portability affects only the wrapper, not the insurance law foundation.

  • Is this primarily an expat issue? – No. Retirees, French nationals, and middle-income savers are the most affected because they cannot afford to lose tax seniority.

  • Why is euro fund performance an issue? – Banque de France data shows euro fund yields have often been below inflation, eroding real savings.

11. Call to Action

Ø  Sign the petition supporting Assurance Vie portability > www.change.org/Assurancevie_reform

Ø  Download the full policy brief (FR & EN).

Ø  Share the campaign with associations, advisers and policymakers.

12. Contacts

Ø  Media & Policy Enquiries: Joanne Leach – Managing Partner

Ø  Matt Leach – Communications Lead

Ø  Leana Kasapis – Research & Policy Analyst 

Ø  Email: advocacy@miraclairwealth.com

13. Reform Champions (2023)

• Jean-François Husson – Sénateur (Les Républicains). Rapporteur général de la Commission des finances du Sénat. Engagé dans la défense de l’épargne des ménages, il a co-rédigé la proposition de loi visant à renforcer la protection des épargnants, incluant la mesure clé de transférabilité de l’Assurance Vie sans perte de l’antériorité fiscale.

• Albéric de Montgolfier – Sénateur et ancien rapporteur général de la Commission des finances. Co-porteur du texte de 2023, il a souligné l’importance de moderniser les contrats d’assurance vie et de rétablir un équilibre entre épargnants et institutions financières.

 

SOURCES FOR ALL FACTS IN THE MEDIA KIT

1. Assurance Vie Market Size (€1.9 trillion)

Source: France Assureurs – Encours de l’assurance vie à fin 2023

→ Confirms €1.923 trillion in total assets.

2. Number of Policies (>50 million)

Sources:

·      French Senate / Projet de loi Husson–de Montgolfier (2023)

·      Banque de France – Household savings datasets

→ Both cite approx. 50 million Assurance Vie contracts.

3. Transfers Per Year (303,000; <1% mobility)

Source: Le Monde, Service Argent – “Assurance-vie : les possibilités de transfert restent toujours limitées” (14 Nov 2024)

→ Reports 303,000 transfers in 2023, internal only, out of >50 million contracts.

4. Legacy Fees (2–3% / year)

Sources:

·      AMF – Rapport “Protection de l’épargne” 2022

·      Cour des Comptes – Rapport Public Annuel 2023 (Ch 6 on Assurance Vie)

→ Both highlight fee opacity and high ongoing charges in older bancassurance contracts.

5. Fee Reduction Impact (+20% wealth for 1% lower fees)

Source: OECD – Retail Investment Products: Fee Structures and Investor Outcomes (2020 & 2023 editions)

→ Finds: reduction of 1% in fees increases lifetime capital by almost 20%.

6. Euro Fund Underperformance (below inflation)

Source: Banque de France – Euro Fund Yield Data (2020–2023)

→ Euro fund rates ~1.3 to 2.1% vs inflation peaks 5–12%.

7. Case Study (real example)

Sources:

·      Internal anonymised client case (MiraClair)—consistent with public reporting

·      Le Revenu, MoneyVox often report euro fund yields <2% and fees >2.5%

8. Senate Vote for Portability (2023)

Source: Sénat – Proposition de loi n° 586 (Husson–de Montgolfier)

→ Article 7 voted by the Senate allowing portability with preserved tax seniority.

9. Reform Stalled in Assemblée Nationale

Source: Assemblée Nationale legislative tracker – dossier DLR5L15N45446

→ Reform transferred from the Senate in 2023; no further progress.

10. Replacement Rates Declining

Source: COR – Rapport Annuel 2023

→ Long-term replacement rates expected to fall.

11. Pension Age Rising

Source: French pension reform (2023) – raising legal retirement age to 64

→ Widely cited: Ministère du Travail / Service Public.

12. International Portability Examples

Sources:

·      UK FCA – Pension Transfer Review

·      Australian Treasury – SuperStream Evaluation

·      US GAO – Retirement System Portability Study

·      Ireland Pensions Authority – PRSA and ARF transfer rules

13. Fee Pressure in Competitive Markets

Source: ESMA – Costs and Performance Report 2023

→ Highlights France as among highest-fee retail markets in EU.

14. Technology Lowering Costs (but not in legacy AV)

Source: OECD – Digital Disruption in the Financial Sector

→ Tech reduces admin costs significantly; legacy contracts slow to pass savings on.

15. Lack of Modernisation in Legacy Contracts

Source: Cour des Comptes – Rapport 2023

→ Notes thousands of “soft-closed” / outdated funds inside legacy life insurance wrappers.