Claire Culliford (asker) Sep 15, 2009:

Assurance vie vs life insurance Thanks for your input Ruth. I completely agree with what you say. This type of French 'assurance vie' isn't typically what we think of as life insurance (in England, where I live, at least). It's more like an investment than simply something that you pay in to so as to protect/cover family etc in the event of a death. Unfortunately, the only translation for 'vie assurance' would seem to be 'life insurance', so I guess unless you're translating something like I am, which explains in more detail what the term means, you could end up making an incorrect assumption that the two things are exactly the same. Think this is definitely one for me to point out to my translator colleagues.

RUTH ELIZABETH BARTLETT Sep 14, 2009:

Wiki gives some more info Ce qui communément est appelé « assurance-vie » en France est un double contrat d'assurance décès et d'assurance en cas de vie sur une durée unique. Ceci permet de présenter un quasi produit d'épargne, doté des avantages fiscaux de l'assurance....
Supports d'investissement [modifier]

On distingue deux types de contrat :
Les contrats en euros ;
Les contrats multisupport, qui comportent à la fois un fonds en euros et des unités de compte investies principalement en actions..

RUTH ELIZABETH BARTLETT Sep 14, 2009:

Definition of "Assurance vie"? i had an Assurance Vie that wasn't what i would call an insurance but a kind of long term savings account...so I'm not sure if this should be understood as life insurace as such..