In life insurance, certain contracts, particularly contra insured deferred capital contracts, are asset envelopes which allow the holding of savings and the allocation of these to the designated beneficiary upon the death of the insured. This aspect, which brings these contracts closer to an investment product, was reinforced by the liberalization of unit-linked contracts by the law of 16 July 1992 (C. Bastard, The reform of unit-linked contracts, RGAT 1999. 241). This actually results in the principle in article L. 131-1, subsection 2, of the Insurance Act, according to which “in matters of life insurance or capitalization transactions, the capital or the guaranteed annuity may be expressed in units an account consisting of negotiable securities or assets that provide adequate protection of the invested savings and which are included in a list drawn up by decree of the State Council Since then, the eligibility of investment instruments for life insurance has continued to be expanded and relaxed (most recently Law No. 2019-486 of 22 May 2019 regarding growth and business transformation [PACTE] and Act No. 2023-973 of 23 October 2023 on green industry).
Try to avoid losses. What remains is that the choice to invest the premiums in units of account rather than in a fund in euros, however attractive it may be during subscription or arbitrage, in terms of return prospects, may turn out to be very disappointing a few months or years later. In fact, the insurance company commits to the number of units of account, but not to their value, of which the insured is in principle properly informed (Insurance Act, art. A. 132-5 and A. 132-8, 2, b) ; addart. L. 112-2-1, IV; to this general information is added information dedicated to each unit of account indicating the risk of capital loss and the risk profile).
One of two things, either the saver, a good gambler, admits the loss, or he tries to escape it and transfer it, in whole or in part, to the insurance company or insurance agent. Here, it discovers a lack of fulfillment of the information obligation, and gives it permission to implement the extended exemption option (C. insur., art. L. 132-5-2, reminding that the extension is only for the benefit of the contractor in good standing faith and favors him within a period of 8 years from the date on which he is notified that the contract has been concluded); there he believes he has been ill-advised and holds the distributor liable in damages for the loss of opportunity he has suffered. Still elsewhere, and in a more original way, he questions the validity of the operation, not that his consent or his capacity are in doubt, but rather the content of the contract.
Challenge the validity of the units of account. The question then is whether the billing units that he has chosen from the list of support offered by the insurance company comply with the applicable regulations. If not, an irregularity is identified, the consequences of which are currently unclear. At most we can note that when eligibility for life insurance…
