FBN - Franco British Network
 

I had a meeting with my bank agent yesterday primarily to discuss assurance vie and he suggested I join the FBN. Does anyone have any experience with this crowd and if so would you recommend using them?

Re: FBN - Franco British Network
 

Hi, had to google FBN which turns out to be people who help expats in the Dordogne in various fields. Unless you need face-to-face help (against payment) in those fields, forum members can advise you for free!
Re Assurances-Vie, if you're living in France forevermore, make sure your beneficiaries are aware of the steps to be taken when you shuffle off this mortal coil. Be aware that, if, for any reason, you yourself decide to buy it back before then, a tax penalty (8% of the value, I believe) will be deducted from the nominal sum.
Didn't your bank agent give you details of his own Bank's Assurance-Vie options? or were you making other enquiries which he couldn't deal with?
HTH
P.S. The thought just occurred to me - is your bank agent in France or the UK?

Re: FBN - Franco British Network
 

Thanks dmu
Went to Bergerac yesterday to Credit Agricole.
He did explain all the ins and outs and he’s promised he will send me the written info for me to thoroughly peruse.
He didn’t warn me of potential pitfalls re inheritance or buying back.
what he did say was that I could leave €152k to each of as many heirs as I wanted and they wouldn’t pay any tax or penalties…
I asked him about withdrawing cash and it sounded pretty straightforward and wouldn’t cost provided I leafy a specific amount in the envelope. We didn’t talk about buying back.

Re: FBN - Franco British Network
 

Thanks for specifying!
The cash that you could withdraw from your Assurance-Vie probably corresponds to the interest that it has created. I believe that the original amount invested can't be touched, unless the "penalty" is applied.
To split hairs, they aren't "heirs" but beneficiaries. It's a way of leaving money to non-relatives tax-free. If they were heirs named in a Will, they would have to pay 60% Taxe de Succession on the value.... Related family members could also benefit from this tax-free "inheritance";

Re: FBN - Franco British Network
 

Thanks dmu
I’ve just telephoned my man at Credit Agricole in Bergerac and he positively assures me there are ZERO costs involved should I want to withdraw part or all of the original amount. He pointed out that obviously I will have wasted money on the initial contract fee - this contract fee can be high but again he says this is negotiable and over €100k deposited would attract fee of 0.2% which seems pretty good.
Great that you get to speak to an actual human being when you dial a number!

Re: FBN - Franco British Network
 

FYI There is a Facebook group called Strictly Legal France which may help