L’épargnant propriétaire face à ses vieux jours

Nearly three quarter of French older households own their home. While still remaining at home until death, they could get cash or life annuity from their real estate assets in order to finance their needs over an increasingly long retirement period. The ?life products? backed on housing are not very widespread, however. The traditional ?viager?, where the buyer and seller are both private individuals, suffers from an outdated image and an unflattering reputation. The reverse mortgage has major disadvantages both on the demand side, because it puts pressure on family relationships, and on the supply side, because, contracted too early, it relates to too long life expectancies. Our study first shows that saver?s practical rationality helps explain, for different reasons, the weak demand for life annuity and life products backed on housing. It then proposes two new products, better suited to this rationality : the ?pooled viager?, which I call viage, is supposed to overcome many disadvantages of the traditional viager through a well-regulated institutional supply ; a specific reverse mortgage product, granted only in case of duly established dependency and reversible, constitutes a credible alternative to long-term care insurance. In both cases, I indicate the legal, fiscal and institutional conditions required to significantly increase the distribution of the product.