When we think of life insurance, we think of secure euro funds, units of account, ETFs, etc. But certain contracts go further: they allow you to buy “lively titles”that is to say shares held directly, such as LVMH, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies or even, depending on the contracts, Apple and Nvidia. The insurer holds the securities for you, without going through a fund: you receive the dividends and benefit from (or suffer from) price variations in the same way as on a securities account or a PEA.
However, this possibility is still unknown. It was first launched in 2011 by Altaprofits, which was then the first broker to offer direct shares in consumer life insurance, via its contract. Titles@Life. Then, it became more widespread: Linxea, Lucya, Boursobank… live windows arrived in several contracts. “Stocks are one of the best performing asset classes over the long term: they make it possible to boost life insurance while reinforcing diversification »estimates Catherine Baudeneau, spokesperson for Altaprofits.
Taxation that the securities account cannot follow
“Combining life insurance and vivid titlesit combines two key levers: performance and advantageous taxationparticularly on capital gains and transmission »explains the expert. Indeed, in a traditional securities account, each dividend is immediately reduced by the flat tax. In life insurance, dividends from French shares are reinvested in the contract without any deduction: they will only be taxed at the time of withdrawal. The same goes for capital gains: you can sell one share to buy another within the contract without triggering tax.
The only exception is the foreign stock dividendswhich are subject to withholding tax in their country of origin (15% for the United States), as on a securities account. Over twenty years, this reinvestment of earnings still makes a considerable difference thanks to compound interest. At the time of withdrawal, the classic rules of life insurance apply.
After eight years, you benefit from an annual reduction of 4,600 euros on earnings (9,200 euros for a couple), then a tax rate reduced to 7.5% up to 150,000 euros in payments. And at the estate, each beneficiary benefits from a reduction of 152,500 euros for sums paid before age 70. Life insurance thus offers an advantage over PEA: the latter is reserved for European equities (and certain international ETFs thanks to synthetic replication), while certain life insurance contracts give access to American valuesJapanese or Swiss directly, which offers them a tax advantage.
Constraints to know before getting started
You must still keep in mind that hot securities are stocks, and therefore can be volatile. “They require a long investment horizon and an ability to accept the risk linked to this volatility. » Buying three or four stocks directly means concentrating your risk: a bad announcement of company results can drop the stock by 10% or more in one sessionwhere a diversified ETF cushions the shock.
There are also practical constraints. The selection is limited to the securities offered by the insurer, unlike the securities account where the choice is almost unlimited, and the minimum amount to invest per share ranges from 500 to 5,000 euros depending on the contracts. On the cost side, count on unit of account management fees of 0.50 to 0.80% per year, plus transaction fees on purchases and sales. Indeed, some brokers add a 0.10% fee precisely on live securities or ETFs. Remember that a PEA or a securities account with an online broker has no management fees. If these fees are too high, they erode performance year after year.
Last limit: reactivity. “We must be vigilant about processing times for transactions on life insurance securities. Depending on the contracts, arbitration requests may be carried out the same day or only the next dayand at a single lesson per day, most often the closing price »warns Catherine Baudeneau. It is therefore impossible to take advantage of a market dip in the middle of a session like on a securities account. This is why we must keep a very long-term horizon in mind.
