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Can one transfer an assurance-vie account to another bank as a US permanent resident (green card holder) and French citizen?

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This article (mirror 1, mirror 2) by CielEden summarizes well what can be done in terms of transferring an assurance-vie account to another bank. Summary of the article:

  • to transfer a assurance-vie account to another bank, you have to create a new assurance-vie account, which resets the date of creation of your account, which will incur a significant lost from a fiscal standpoint.
  • The only exception is using the Fourgous law, which only applies in some special circumstances (see section "Les conditions requises par l’amendement Fourgous" in the article). Criteria: stay with the same "assureur" (maybe that means staying with the same bank?), transfer all the funds, and investing at least 20% in "unités de compte".

A law (" loi Pacte") was proposed last year to authorize transferring assurance-vie account to another bank without losing its fiscal advantage (i.e., without resetting the creation date of the assurance-vie account ) but it was rejected (mirror).

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Ok so If the life insurance or assurance-vie is issued by US based insurance company the only way you can "transfer" is to do a 1035 exchange into another life insurance contract. I see in your question you mentioned "transfer to a bank" bank meaning you want liquid cash you would have to surrender your assurance-vie. You will only get the cash value of the insurance contract and not the whole value or Death benefit. As far as being a french citizen is irrelevant once you are a permanent resident.

I would need more info as to what you want to accomplish to answer your question in detail

Hope it helps :)

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  • Thanks, the French "assurance-vie" is actually different from the American life insurance. I'm not aware of any US equivalent. You can view it as a tax-favored brokerage account.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Feb 21, 2019 at 2:03
  • Thats interesting because the wiki page your hyperlinked to assurance-vie translated it to life insurance explanation but if you say its a tax-favored brokerage account sounds like you would have to (and I'm assuming) you MAY have to pay some fees and penalties if you want to transfer. I would ask the institution that holds your assurance-vie. I have a question for you, tax favored is tax deferred, tax exempted or some special type of incentive tax on capital gains of a certain amount?
    – Rudy Jessop
    Feb 21, 2019 at 2:54
  • yes the wiki translation is a bit misleading. The assurance-vie becomes tax advantageous when one keeps the money for a few years in the account, so in some way one dies the beneficiaries can use the money from the account, just like with insurances. Too many financial products, too many banking fees, too many tax laws! Good way to waste human time and misdirect capitals.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Feb 21, 2019 at 3:00

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