It is a small box which has a large impact: in a life insurance contract, the beneficiary clause makes it possible to designate the person (s) who will receive the capital held on this savings product on your death. All with a substantial tax advantage, since the transmission via life insurance is done excluding succession, with a reduction which can reach 152,500 euros per beneficiary, for payments made before your 70 years.
However, during the life of a long -term product such as life insurance, you may have to want to modify this clause written at the opening of the contract, in order to add or remove one or more beneficiaries: “The contractor has the right to appoint a beneficiary or to substitute one beneficiary for another”recalls article L132-8 of the insurance code. And good news: you can now do it more freely, without notifying the insurance company in particular.
The modification is “Subject to any rule of form”
This is the meaning of a judgment rendered on April 3 by the Court of Cassation, which returned to the conditions of validity of a change in beneficiary clause. As the court clearly states it, “The modification of the name of the beneficiary of an insurance contract on life is not subject to any rule of form». In other words, this jurisprudence calls into question a previous judgment, dated 2019, which had that the “Validity of such a modification (was) conditioned (…) to the attention of this modification by the insurer before the death of the insured”.
“We come back to something more traditional, and closer to the desire of the subscriber: we can modify his beneficiary freely, without having to provide his document insurer likely to manifest this change. The clause is always valid, even without information from the insurer. Only the “certain and non -equivocal character” of the will of the subscriber validates the change “summarizes Thomas Prud’homoz, associated notary at KL-Consil.
No need for a contract or mail to the insurer
Thus, the Court of Cassation confirms that it is not necessary, for example, to request an addendum from its life insurance contract to modify the beneficiary clause, nor to send a letter to its insurer to notify this change to it. “We can for example indicate it in a holographic will (Written by hand, signed and dated, editor’s note) which can be deposited in a trunk or sent to his notary, or by a private deed, signed between the subscriber and his future beneficiary “, Details Thomas Prud’homoz.
However, in case of modification without notification to your insurer, it may be preferable to return the document to your notary. The latter can then quickly transmit your last wishes to the insurer, while a will left at home can be more difficult to find, or destroyed. However, if the insurer is not warned of the modification of the clause, he can in good faith pay capital to the person (s) designated at first, “And this without being able to take action against the company ”recalls Thomas Prud’homoz.
