Once again, my "conseiller" (I hate that word. She's a saleswoman) at the bank has been pressing me to buy life insurance.
A "euros" ones (as opposed to equities-based) so no risk, she says.

I've explained to her umpteem times in the past that we're not interested because
1. we may well leave France in a couple of years and
2. we might need the money at short notice to buy a house

But she is now saying we could have the cash in 4 days if necessary and that even after all the frais, it's still well worth doing.

I'd always understood there was little point taking out life insurance in France for just a couple of years.
And if I decide a few months after taking out the policy that we need to cash it in, surely we'll have to pay the substantial "frais", without getting any of the promised interest?

Obviously, I'll have to look at the specific terms and conditions of the product she's pushing (SG's Ebene policy) but do you have any general thoughts on the subject?

My own feeling is that it's going to be a lot of hassle for very little reward.

Hi Helen
I can't help with your SG insurance but in general with a product like that the fees are all front loaded.
If you cancel in a short space of time ( a few years) these fees (including future fees) will be deducted from the amount paid out.
In the UK, you have the right to ask the bank what fees they will receive for the sale of this product.
That may not be the case in France.
My rule of thumb in these instances is that if they come to me to sell something then I probably would not be interested.
If I decide that I need such a product then that is a different situation.
You will have to decide if you want/need this insurance.

Thanks very much Cyrian. “Front loaded” is exactly the expression I was looking for!

I'm with cyrian on this one. I never buy from a pushy salesman and would never ever dream of buying insurances from a bank.

Is the policy an "assurance vie" ie one where you tie your money up for eight years for a tax free return and taking it out early means penalties? or is it something like an assurance obseques ie a funeral plan?
If the former I would not do it unless I knew I was staying in France if the latter it may be worth doing if you were staying in France especially as most of these policies take over all the initial admin involved in a death before passing it onto a notaire

I have a Ebene life insurance for the sole purpose of leaving money tax-free to my stepchildren.
Last year I had to take a bit of money out to purchase a property and put back when I sold another property.
The tax/social security charges I paid was ENORMEOUS !
I think, unless you are not going to touch the money (which was my idea), it is not worth doing.
This is just my view !

ALSO since the Ukraine war started, it hardly earns any money ... but then of course, that's the risk with these sort of insurances.

I agree. She didn't use to be this pushy. Must be under pressure to sell stuff.

Listen Very Carefully - it's the former.
It's the Ebene life insurance policy, marketed by the Societe Generale.
Honestly, I've been on their website and delved into the gory details of this thing and the fees / charges look mindbogglingly complicated. I really can't be bothered trying to do the calculations.
I've already explained to this woman that we don't know where we''ll be in 2 years - whether we're staying in France or moving on.
If I were to cash it in in, say, 24 months' time, by the time I've paid the entry fees, management fees, possibly exit fees and God knows how much in tax/social charges, I bet I'd be worse off than if I had just left the money to fester in our very-low-interest-bearing livret d'epargne.
The older I get, the happier I am for my money to fester. If it keeps life simple.

Thanks Annetje. That's precisely the product she's trying to flog me. Ebene.
But she's knows I'm "risk averse" so she's pushing the euros policy. I still think it's far too complicated, though, and that there's a very good chance I'll end up worse off.

Hi, I've got a couple of Assurances-Vie, inherited from OH, which were taken out years ago for the tax perks (and continued by me to avoid inheritance tax for my step-grandchildren who are included in the beneficiaries). I redeemed a 3rd, more recent one and an exit tax (I've forgotten what percentage it was of the value) was deducted (paid to the Fisc, it didn't go into the bank's coffers). And a similar percentage of exit tax was deducted from my former neighbour's Assurance-Vie because she was still alive in the UK when she redeemed it. Apparently her's specified that it couldn't be fully redeemed until she died.
If you aren't sure of staying in France, don't listen to your Conseillère, she's just after some commission.
P.S. Despite the war in the Ukraine, my A-Vs have remained stable....

Thanks very much DMU.
I can see that there are plenty of people for whom assurance vie does make sense. But I agree with you that in our case it doesn’t.
My conseillière specifically asked me about our timeframe and I told her 2 years. Given the charges/fees involved, I think she was on very dodgy ground advising us to buy this product.