As of June 1, distributors of PER and life insurance contracts will have to publicly present, on their website, a single table presenting, in a standardized manner, the fees applicable to holders. This is the result of an agreement concluded today between the Minister of the Economy and market players.
This is, according to Bruno Le Maire, the last obstacle to the popular success of the Retirement Savings Plan (PER): the level of costs. The fees, recurring or not, applied to PERs have been in the crosshairs of the Minister of the Economy since July 2021, and the publication, at his request, of a report by Corinne Dromer, president of the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) on the subject.
Holding a PER means paying fixed opening fees, management fees each year, fees on each payment or on each arbitration… Management fees alone represent 2 to 3% of the outstanding, which means that a PER of 10,000 euros generates 200 to 300 euros in costs per year, lamented Bruno Le Maire. It is completely excessive, and even dissuasive. These accumulating fees are an obstacle to the popular and massive development of the PER.
Retirement savings plan: the costs that must be successfully compared
A single standardized table
To lower these costs, Bercy did not choose to introduce caps, as is the case, for example, for the costs of the PEA, but to expose them. I believe in competition through transparency, summarized Bruno Le Maire.
In a market agreement signed today with the producers of PER, the Minister obtained their commitment to publish, on the internet, a single table of fees. A standardized document, simple, clear and readable by all, he promises, allowing savers looking for a PER to compare the levels of costs prior to subscription. We take up the principle of price comparators from large retailers, which have proven their worth, summarized Bruno Le Maire.
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These tables should be published June 1, 2022 at the latest, on the site of each PER and life insurance producer.
Life insurance also concerns
PERs will not be the only savings products affected by this new feature. All life insurance contracts marketed must also be accompanied by this new single table of costs. Compared to other financial products, PER and life insurance were lagging far behind in terms of transparency, said Bruno Le Maire.
This transformation will be accompanied by a enrichment of the pre-contractual information and the annual information provided to the saver. The total costs borne by each unit of account or each asset will now be displayed, from July 1, 2022 in terms of pre-contractual information and from 2023 for the annual information campaign for the 2022 financial year, details a press release from Bercy . A decree to be published will formalize these changes.
Compare the PER available on the internet