Created in October 2019 to simplify and harmonize the various existing systems, the retirement savings plan (PER) seems to have found its place in the heritage of the French. “The PER has come into people’s minds as the most suitable product for preparing for retirement”notes Antoine Delon, president of the online broker Linxea.
This new envelope has won over savers thanks to three major advantages. First of all, the possibility of deducting its payments from its taxable income. A characteristic that makes the PER a weapon of tax exemption for the most taxed households. Another advantage: the great flexibility left to PER holders at the exit. It is possible to opt for an exit in capital or life annuity, but also to combine these two modes. Finally, even if it is a tunnel product dedicated to retirement, the PER reassures thanks to its possibility of early exit, in particular for the acquisition of the main residence.
Nevertheless, it remains a complex system, in particular because it replaces both individual and collective savings products and because it can be kept throughout one’s life according to one’s professional development. “We still have a lot of education to do”, recognizes Olivier Sentis, the managing director of the MIF mutual insurance company. Behind the unique product there are many subtleties. Review of some specificities of the PER still poorly known.
Before, you subscribed to a popular retirement savings plan (PERP) or an individual Madelin contract and, if you were an employee, you could access a collective retirement savings plan (Perco) or a retirement contract section 83 by your employer. From now on, you have an individual PER, a collective PER and a mandatory PER. Even if there are no rules in this area, most individual PERs are based on a life insurance format, while collective and mandatory PERs, taken out by companies for their employees, are products in securities.
Either way, each product should have three compartments. The first accommodates voluntary payments, the second sums from employee savings (profit-sharing, profit-sharing, matching contributions) and the third is devoted to compulsory payments by the employee and/or the employer. Thus, if you subscribe to an individual PER, you only fund the first compartment. However, you have the possibility to transfer sums from a business product if you wish. The capital will be housed in the appropriate compartments. “Having the possibility of consolidating all of your retirement savings in a single envelope makes it possible to manage the exit phase in a very flexible way”, says Sylvain Coriat, member of the executive committee of Allianz France, in charge of personal insurance. Depending on the compartment, the tax treatment on entry and exit will be different.
You have 63.67% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.