Livret A or life insurance: which investment will earn you the most in 2025?

Among risk-free investments, Livret A and life insurance in euro funds are by far the most popular. If the rate of the first will automatically drop this year, certain life insurance contracts should earn you more.

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For French savers, it is a dilemma that repeats itself every year. Of their two favorite investments, which should they favor? Or put another way: which one will offer the best return on their precious savings? On the one hand, the Livret A, the most popular savings product in France, with no less than 57 million holdersaccording to the latest statement from the Banque de France. On the other, life insurance, which accumulates the largest volume of savings, with almost 2 trillion euros outstanding at the end of 2024, according to France Assureurs.

If there is a match, it is because these two products are interchangeable in terms of risk, and often display close interest rates. Like all regulated savings accounts, Livret A benefits from a capital guarantee. In other words, you cannot lose the money you deposit there. Security from which it is also possible to benefit from life insurance, by opting for an investment in euro funds. Supports with guaranteed capital in which the majority of savers’ nest eggs are invested.

Two investments that tend towards a return of 2.5%

On the yield side, however, be careful, because if the Livret A rate is the same for all its holders, that of life insurance varies from one contract to another. In this month of January, the Livret A rate, for example, still appears at a rate of 3% for all its holders. But given the level of inflation, it will be mechanically revised downwards on February 1, probably at a rate of 2.5%as confirmed on France Inter by the new Minister of Economy and Finance, Eric Lombard, this Monday, January 6. A reduced rate that it will keep until August 1, 2025, the date of its second annual review, and which, if the decline in price increases is confirmed, will still be synonymous with a decline.

For its part, life insurance offers less visibility on its performance. The rates used on euro funds are not known at any time, but are communicated at the start of the year by insurers, on behalf of the previous financial year. Thus, the 2024 contract rates are announced in January 2025. On average, over the past year, the performance of euro funds is expected at 2.5% by the Good Value for Money firm. But this average hides much higher performance for certain products: Ampli mutual has, for example, already announced a rate of 3.75% on its life insurance contract invested 100% in euro funds, just like in 2023. Or 3.10% net of social security contributions (17.2%), the only tax applied to life insurance contracts over 8 years old.

In other words, provided you choose the right insurer, you can hope for a higher return on your Livret A by favoring life insurance this year, but you will only be assured of this in January… 2026! On average, even if it is very early to say with certainty, the rates paid on euro funds in 2025 could remain stable compared to 2024 – between 2.50%, 2.60% – according to the firm’s first expectations Good value for Money.