There are several different ways to invest your savings. Most of the time, your savings are deposited with your bank, at the suggestion of your adviser. What types of investment are available from banks and independent advisers? What is the difference between them? Here's some information to help you better understand how they work and assess the management of your savings.

Passbook accounts in the banking sector:

Generally speaking, deposits are made into what are known as "regulated" passbook savings accounts. These are the Livret A, LDDS (Livret Développement Durable et Solidaire), Livret Jeune and LEP (Livret d'Épargne Populaire) passbooks, whose remuneration and operation are determined by the public authorities. In all cases, the banks collect the funds, but it is the government that uses them to finance social housing, investment in very small businesses and, above all, the energy transition. To a certain extent, investing your money in this way is a good way to deal with day-to-day emergencies and reassure your family. Immediate availability is the main advantage of short-term investments.

General information on longer-term financial investments:

If the situation allows and certain conditions are met, you can invest in medium- or long-term investments such as life insurance policies and PEAs (Share Savings Plans). These two more technical vehicles require special care and attention. The regulations are in line with these, with regulatory obligations introduced and monitored by various bodies under the aegis of the Banque de France, such as the AMF and the ACPR. The aim of these constraints is to protect investors by ensuring that they are aware of the appropriate balance between their sensitivity to risk and their asset allocation. In fact, all financial players are required to comply with these imperatives.

What are the differences between investing with a bank and with an independent specialist?

First of all, each banking group is backed by a single insurer. For open life insurance policies, the capital is not deposited in an account managed by the bank but directly in the envelope opened with this insurer.

The first difference is therefore a technical one: with this type of contract, investors have access to the insurer's Euro fund and funds created or managed by the bank's management company, ranging from two to around twenty units of account. As the contracts of independent asset management advisers generally have an "open architecture", the choice of allocation is much finer, as the funds are selected from hundreds of different UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities).

What's more, as the contract is linked to the bank, it is not transferable, so you will still have to go through your branch for most procedures, even if your active bank account is closed.

In the case of the PEA, we find the same captive nature of the contract as for envelopes opened at a bank. But the major qualitative difference is the threshold for access to discretionary management, giving easier access to a top-of-the-range, personalised service that is generally reserved for private banks.

To sum up, with an independent adviser, the 3 main advantages are :

- A wide choice of insurers among the advisor's partners

- Open architecture" contracts giving access to hundreds of different unit trusts,

- Personalised support, with no 'captivity' of the contract by the bank.

Since the core business of Wealth Management Advisers is customer relations, they strive to provide the best possible support for all their customers by carefully applying all the procedures and vigilance measures required by their profession. The team of specialists at Wealth A7 can provide you with support and advice - contact us!

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