Growth fund (French life insurance, formerly eurocroissance)

The euro fund guarantees capital at all times, which forces the insurer to invest very cautiously. Unit-linked funds offer no guarantee. The growth fund seeks a middle ground: the guarantee, full or partial, is due only at a fixed maturity of at least eight years, not every day. Before maturity, the value of the savings moves with the markets. Freed from the obligation to provide permanent guaranteed liquidity, the insurer can invest a larger share in equities and unlisted assets, and the saver hopes in return for a higher return than the euro fund over the long term. Created in 2014 under the name eurocroissance, the product barely took off, partly because of its complexity: each saver had a specific value depending on entry date and maturity. The 2019 PACTE law recast it as the growth fund, with a single net asset value, comparable to that of a unit-linked fund, and a pooled diversification reserve. Its logic answers a prudential constraint: a guarantee at maturity costs less capital under Solvency II than a guarantee on demand. Its success depends on savers' willingness to accept a temporary fall in value in exchange for a guarantee at maturity.