In June 2022, producers and distributors of life insurance and PER were required to provide access on their website to a harmonized table detailing the annual and one-off costs of their contracts. A measure supposed to bring more transparency. But is this really the case?
Since June 1, 2022, bankers and insurers have been required to publish on their website a summary table of fees levied on life insurance contracts and Retirement Savings Plans (PER).
In addition to the minimum down payment amount, this harmonized document details the annual fees and especially Management applied to euro funds, units of account, eurocroissance funds and finally those associated with the different pilot management profiles.
THE fees on payment, arbitration, transfer, redemption or those read in change in management mode are also accessible in the one-off costs section.
For the retirement savings plan (PER), the management fees for management managed by horizon are specified for each profile (prudent, balanced, dynamic), with the commission retrocession rates. The costs displayed correspond to an allowance 20 years before retirement.
Life and PER insurance: how to benefit from the new summary table of costs
But a little more than a year after the implementation of this measure, are all the producers and distributors of life insurance and PER playing the game? We can already see that this table of costs is indeed accessible… If we look for it a little.
Good students and those who barely follow the directive
To access the harmonized table of life insurance or PER costs, the saver must sometimes demonstrate tenacity. And for good reason, some banks, far from clearly displaying this document, show ingenuity to complicate its task.
Hard tables to find… This is the case of Credit Agricole, whether for Predissime 9, Floriane or PER life insurance contracts, where the table is actually available but the saver or future customer will have to click on the link accessible on the product page, the Expenses line. He will then be redirected to a new page, on which he will have to choose the desired contract again. Only then will it access the summary table of costs. same for me BNP Paribas who even placed this link at the very bottom of their product page.
Easy to find tables… Fortunately, the task is sometimes less complex. At Credit Mutuel for Life Insurance Plan and PER contracts, the saver must go to the very bottom of the product presentation page to click on the link sending them directly this time to the famous table, accessible in PDF.
SG Bankformerly Socit Générale, clearly displays its costs on arbitration in the Prices tab and has chosen to link the complete document.
At the house of LCLyou must reach the How it works paragraph and click on the link provided to obtain this same harmonized table.
The savers association Afer is also one of the good students. The common document summarizing all costs is accessible by link and is prominently displayed in the documentation section of the product pages.
With the majority of online life insurance and retirement savings plan distributors such as Fortuneo, Yomoni, Altaprofitsto name just a few, the table is also available via a link.
But some do even better such as Placement-direct, Meilleurtaux Placement or Linxea, which display a large part of the famous document directly on their product page and link the complete document compliant with the regulations.
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The worst students
So who are the worst students? At the house of Boursoramasurprise, the price tab does not refer to this summary table of costs but invites the saver to download the general conditions (at the bottom of the page).
there Savings bank, on the product page, the saver is sent directly to the BPCE group website to obtain the summary table of contract costs. A document certainly available but of which the last update was August 2022.
If almost all the players mentioned above indeed respect the measure put in place last summer, the question of transparency still arises. The saver must in fact search more or less far on the websites of the different players to obtain the precious document. It is often more available than easily accessible.
Details of these costs are also available in the general conditions… the search for which can be just as tedious.
What costs should you focus on?
In order to better compare these different costs, we can only advise being particularly vigilant about payment, management and arbitration fees. They are equivalent for life insurance and the retirement savings plan.
PER: the costs that must be successfully compared
On average, for example, for PER, fees on deposit reached 3.18%, according to the latest figures available. They can even go up to 5% for certain contracts, the legal maximum. Payment fees are often non-existent for online life insurance.
In all cases, fees on installments are often negotiableunlike arbitration or management fees.
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