The Retirement Savings Plan (PER), a new reflex for the French to prepare for their retirement.

The PER, an appeal that has not been denied since its launch

It is therefore no surprise that PERs are growing. According to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, 12.7 million French people are holders of them, which represents more than 141 billion euros in outstandings in the third quarter of 2025. Individual PERs (PERIN) alone represented 82.4 billion euros in outstandings. And more and more French people are preparing to take the plunge.

For Lucie, the trigger was an individual situation report received on the occasion of her 40th birthday. “I am naturally anxious and estimates made me realize that I had to anticipate. » The labor law lawyer immediately contacted her Crédit Agricole agency to prepare for her retirement. Good luck to him. Awarded by Challenges on October 8, 2026, Crédit Agricole's Perspective individual PER stands out for its excellent performance and reduced management fees.*

A more flexible device than it seems

The individual PER is accessible to any adult. It is funded by voluntary payments and remains a flexible product in terms of payments. If there is no maximum age, since January 1, 2026, payments made after the 70th birthday are no longer deductible from overall income for the calculation of income tax.

For Lucie, single without children and heavily taxed, this deductibility is one of the great advantages of this product intended to prepare for retirement. Classically, the proportion of the economy depends on the tax bracket. The higher the marginal tax rate (TMI), the greater the tax savings.

Flexibility is also what appealed to Augustin, a 55-year-old entrepreneur, whose income can vary considerably from one year to the next. He is not the only one to rejoice that the unused portion of the ceiling, the “tax catch-up” is now spread over 5 years instead of 3 years.

Anticipation in preparing for retirement is truly a key word and concerns every French person. And this is one of the things to know about the PER. This retirement solution is accessible to everyone, whatever their professional situation: employees, self-employed workers (TNS), self-employed professionals, civil servants, etc.

Upon retirement, the savings accumulated can be recovered in the form of capital, a life annuity or a mixture of the two. In this last scenario, a fraction of the PER will be taken out as capital for immediate projects and the rest transformed into a life annuity to secure additional regular income in the form of a supplementary pension. This is what Anne-Marie and Virgil did. “We have released part of it for a cruise around the world and are now receiving a pension of 950 euros which is added to our pension of 2,750 euros.” Another strategy for Mickael, who chose to wait until his wife had asserted her rights, by voluntarily postponing the release of his PER. The former IT executive waited until their income had fallen, and gradually withdrew his capital fractionally, over several years, in order to smooth out the impacts on their income tax.

Machine-translated from French