Many savers automatically switch their heritage towards risk-free investments once they turn 60, seeing retirement time very close, but also for fear of no longer having time to rebuild their lives in the event of a decline in the markets. However, this approach deserves to be nuanced if you have still projects to finance in the years to come, if retirement will be later, or if you do not need to draw on your capital immediately.
Catherine Baudeneau, spokesperson for Altaprofits, a financial investment broker, assures us: “After 60 years, no asset class is excluded in principle”. It is therefore this, much more than your age, which will drive everything.
Investment horizon more important than age
“The real question is not age, but the objective pursued and the investment horizon”the expert confirms. Indeed, in personal finance, there are several main principles to know, and that of the investment horizon is perhaps the most important of them. It determines the duration for which the sums invested can remain immobilized. This means that someone who plans to use their capital to carry out major work on their main residence next year does not have the same investment horizon as someone who plans to travel around the world in retirement in six years, nor as someone who prepares to transfer their assets within fifteen or twenty years… and even though they are all the same age.
She therefore recommends “not systematically reducing your exposure to risk” without thinking about their needs first. “This is what yield-time couplesupplemented by each person’s risk tolerance, which must guide the allocation of assets”details Catherine Baudeneau. Concretely, this means dividing your savings into several pockets according to their destination: a part available in the short term on secure supports such as the Livret A, the LDDS or euro funds, and a part intended for a distant project or for descendants, which can remain invested in more dynamic assets. Yes, even at the age of sixty, it is therefore possible to continue to invest in the stock market or in real estate with the aim of to seek a better return
Choose your tax envelope wisely
Beyond the distribution between asset classes, “the choice of the envelope becomes as important as that of the supports” at that age, underlines Catherine Baudeneau. Among the options available, life insurance remains the most cited for people approaching the age of 70, because it allows them to prepare their estate in good conditions.
“Life insurance allows you to enhance your capital while preparing its transfer in a particularly advantageous tax framework, particularly for payments made before age 70”she explains. Concretely, amounts paid before this age benefit from a reduction of 152,500 euros per beneficiary on inheritance tax, compared to only 30,500 euros for all beneficiaries in the event of payment after age 70. For a couple who have two children, this can represent up to 610,000 euros transferred outside of inheritance, provided that the payments are anticipated before the parents’ 70th birthday.
