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Are you a client? You should contact your private banker. 
You are not a client but would like to have more information about Societe Generale Private Banking? Please fill in the form below.

Local contacts

France: +33 (0)1 53 43 87 00 (9am - 6pm)
Luxembourg: +352 47 93 11 1 (8:30am - 5:30pm)
Monaco: +377 97 97 58 00 (9/12am - 2/5pm)
Switzerland: Geneva +41 22 819 02 02
& Zurich +41 44 218 56 11 (8:30am - 5:30pm)

You would like to contact us about the protection of your personal data?

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking France by sending an email to the following address: protectiondesdonnees@societegenerale.fr.

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Luxembourg by sending an email to the following address: lux.dpooffice@socgen.com.

For customers residing in Italy, please contact BDO, the external provider in charge of Data Protection, by sending an email to the following address: lux.dpooffice-branch-IT@socgen.com

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco by sending an email to the following address: list.mon-privmonaco-dpo@socgen.com

Please contact the Data Protection Officer of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland by sending an email to the following address : ch-dataprotection@socgen.com

You need to make a claim?

Societe Generale Private Banking aims to provide you with the best possible quality of service. However, difficulties may sometimes arise in the operation of your account or in the use of the services made available to you.

Your private banker  is your privileged contact to receive and process your claim.

 If you disagree with or do not get a response from your advisor, you can send your claim to the direction  of Societe Generale Private Banking France by email to the following address: FR-SGPB-Relations-Clients@socgen.com or by mail to: 

Société Générale Private Banking France
29 boulevard Haussmann CS 614
75421 Paris Cedex 9

Societe Generale Private Banking France undertakes to acknowledge receipt of your claim within 10 (ten) working days from the date it is sent and to provide you with a response within 2 (two) months from the same date. If we are unable to meet this 2 (two) month deadline, you will be informed by letter.

In the event of disagreement with the bank  or of a lack of response from us within 2 (two) months of sending your first written claim, or within 15 (fifteen) working days for a claim about a payment service, you may refer the matter free of charge, depending on the nature of your claim, to:  

 

The Consumer Ombudsman at the FBF

The Consumer Ombudsman at the Fédération Bancaire Française (FBF – French Banking Federation) is competent for disputes relating to services provided and contracts concluded in the field of banking operations (e.g. management of deposit accounts, credit operations, payment services etc.), investment services, financial instruments and savings products, as well as the marketing of insurance contracts.

The FBF Ombudsman will reply directly to you within 90 (ninety) days from the date on which she/he receives all the documents on which the request is based. In the event of a complex dispute, this period may be extended. The FBF Ombudsman will formulate a reasoned position and submit it to both parties for approval.

The FBF Ombudsman can be contacted on the following website: www.lemediateur.fbf.fr or by mail at:

Le Médiateur de la Fédération Bancaire Française
CS 151
75422 Paris CEDEX 09

 

The Ombudsman of the AMF

The Ombudsman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF - French Financial Markets Authority) is also competent for disputes relating to investment services, financial instruments and financial savings products.

For this type of dispute, as a consumer customer, you have therefore a choice between the FBF Ombudsman and the AMF Ombudsman. Once you have chosen one of these two ombudsmen, you can no longer refer the same dispute to the other ombudsman.

The AMF Ombudsman can be contacted on the AMF website: www.amf-france.org/fr/le-mediateur or by mail at:

Médiateur de l'AMF, Autorité des Marchés Financiers
17 place de la Bourse
75082 PARIS CEDEX 02
FRANCE


The Insurance Ombudsman

The Insurance Ombudsman is competent for disputes concerning the subscription, application or interpretation of insurance contracts.

The Insurance Ombudsman can be contacted using the contact details that must be mentioned in your insurance contract.

To ensure that your requests are handled effectively, any claim addressed to Societe Generale Luxembourg should be sent to:

Private banking Claims department
11, Avenue Emile Reuter
L-2420 Luxembourg

Or by email to clienteleprivee.sglux@socgen.com and for customers residing in Italy at societegenerale@unapec.it

The Bank will acknowledge your request within 10 working days and provide a response to your claim within 30 working days of receipt. If your request requires additional processing time (e.g. if it involves complex research), the Bank will inform you of this situation within the same 30-working day timeframe.

In the event that the response you receive does not meet your expectations, we suggest the following:

Initially, you may wish to contact the Societe Generale Luxembourg Division responsible for handling claims, at the following address:

Corporate Secretariat of Societe Generale Luxembourg
11, Avenue Emile Reuter
L-2420 Luxembourg

If the response from the Division responsible for claims does not resolve the claim, you may wish to contact Societe Generale Luxembourg's supervisory authority, the “Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier”/“CSSF” (Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission):

By mail: 283, Route d’Arlon L-1150 Luxembourg
By email:
direction@cssf.lu

Any claim addressed to Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco should be sent by e-mail to the following address: servicequalite.privmonaco@socgen.com or by mail to our dedicated department: 

Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco
Middle Office – Service Réclamation 
11 avenue de Grande Bretagne
98000 Monaco

The Bank will acknowledge your request within 2 working days after receipt and provide a response to your claim within a maximum of 30 working days of receipt. If your request requires additional processing time (e.g. if it involves complex researches…), the Bank will inform you of this situation within the same 30-working day timeframe. 

In the event that the response you receive does not meet your expectations, we suggest to contact the Societe Generale Private Banking Direction that handles the claims by mail at the following address: 

Societe Generale Private Banking Monaco
Secrétariat Général
11 avenue de Grande Bretagne 
98000 Monaco

Any claim addressed to the Bank can be sent by email to:

sgpb-reclamations.ch@socgen.com
 

Clients may also contact the Swiss Banking Ombudsman: 

www.bankingombudsman.ch

 

Gifting fairly and squarely

Article up to date as at 1 November 2020, drafted in accordance with French legislation in force,
and applicable to individuals whose tax residence is in France.

 

A gift is an irrevocable relinquishment of possession. For the donor, it is also an effective wealth engineering tool. Many people looking at how to transfer their wealth in their lifetime have a particular goal in mind: to help their children achieve a particular milestone, to prepare their estate and limit any disputes over the attribution of assets, or to spare their heirs the burden of inheritance tax. Transferring wealth in one’s lifetime is a complex affair. Moreover, the donor may only take advantage of the allowance and lower tax band every 15 years. The donor must therefore make carefully-considered choices to get the most out of his or her act of generosity.

Gifting fundamentals

As a starting point, the donor should be fully aware of the fact that gifting is an irrevocable act, except in cases of ingratitude, failure to perform attached charges (as declared by a court judge), or the donor outliving the beneficiary. A gift is always made without ulterior motive, and may come with “charges” or “special conditions”, such as the inability to give away, sell or transfer the gift to the beneficiary’s family (spouse), the obligation to pass down the gift to the next generation, or to provide for the donor’s needs. The gift may also be made on a given date or at a specified milestone – when the beneficiary graduates from university or embarks on a new life stage (birth of a child, signing a purchase agreement), etc.

The following questions can help guide donors in their choices.

What kind of rights do the gift confer?

First of all, the donor should give thought to the extent of powers conferred by the gift to the beneficiary. Does the donor mean to relinquish all rights over the asset in question, allowing the beneficiary to dispose of it as he or she sees fit? Or does the donor wish to continue to benefit from the asset and its income? Or perhaps the donor would like to give the beneficiary right to the income only. If so, would it be for life or for a set duration?

Indeed, the conferred rights must be qualified as either full ownership, bare ownership, life or temporary usufruct. The tax cost of dividing the attributes of ownership will depend on the value of the conferred rights, which is a percentage of the full ownership value which, in turn, is determined by the duration of the division. The usufruct value depends on the actual or theoretical duration of the usufruct – the younger the donor, the greater the usufruct value and the lower the bare ownership value. If the donor opts for usufruct with retention of income, therefore, the earlier he or she starts gifting ownership (bare ownership in this case) the better it is for the calculation of transfer duties.

What is the nature of the gift?

The second step is to consider the nature of the intended gift. Is it a gift of shares in a trading or non-trading company? A residential or investment property? A sum of money? A piece of art? The choice of gift too influences the transfer duties. With a share transfer, any liabilities in the company balance sheet are reflected in the value of the gifted shares. For cash gifts, in some cases, and subject to conditions, beneficiaries have a personal tax-free gift allowance of up to €32,000; while beneficiaries of company shares are entitled to a 75% tax rate allowance under the “Dutreil” scheme, as well as a gift tax reduction where applicable.

Who are the benificiaries?

Thirdly, the donor must determine whether the gift is for his or her children, spouse, parents, or siblings, or for third parties, non-profit organisations, employees, etc. Indeed, the donor and beneficiary need not necessarily be related. That said, the donor is bound by the reserved portion of his or her estate*. Barring any specific tax schemes (possible exoneration for structures deemed of public interest, tax advantages for employees who take over a business, etc.), the further the degree of separation from the donor, the higher the tax expense. So, while a donor can make a tax-free gift of €100,000 to his or her child every 15 years, it would cost €60,000 if the gift is made to a third party or to a family member beyond the fourth degree of kinship.

Choosing the right time

The final question is when is the best time to transfer one’s wealth. Indeed, the tax implications vary depending on the timing of the gift. That is why provisions should be made ahead of time in order to minimise duties, especially since the tax allowance and the progressive scale on which it is based only apply every 15 years. In other words, any gifts made less than 15 years before the donor’s death are not eligible to the arrangement, and will need to be declared for the calculation of the inheritance tax on the donor’s estate. Likewise, a gift with reserved right of usufruct will in theory cost more over time, as the scale for evaluating usufruct is based on the usufructuary’s age on the day the gift was made.

Choosing when to make a gift also depends on legislative windows of opportunity. For example, until 30 June 2021, donors can gift up to €100,000 each to their child, grandchild, great-grandchild or, in the absence of this lineage, their niece of nephew, without having to pay any transfer duties. This is on condition that the beneficiaries use this capital within three months to do renovations on their primary residence or upgrade its energy efficiency. Alternatively, they can use the capital to create or develop a small business in Europe with fewer than 50 employees, that is less than five years old, that operates in the industrial, retail, craft, agricultural or liberal sectors, has never paid out dividends, is not listed, nor is the result of a merger, and has a balance sheet of less than €10 million. In addition, the business must be managed by the beneficiary for at least three years.

 

To conclude, as a donor you must give due consideration to your act of generosity. Your choice is final and will have tax implications depending on your relationship to the beneficiary, when the gift is made, and the nature of that gift. A wealth engineer is the best positioned to give you a comprehensive overview of your options, as well as general advisory services.

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* The portion of an estate that must be transferred, free of encumbrance, to persons legally recognised as “privileged heirs".

Would you like to discuss this subject further with us?

The information provided on this page is for information purposes only and has no contractual value. The content of this page is not intended to provide investment advice or any other investment service and does not constitute an offer, a personalised recommendation or advice from Societe Generale Private Banking with a view to the purchase or subscription or sale of investment services or financial products.

The information contained on this page does not constitute legal, tax or accounting advice. The information contained herein is provided for information purposes only and is intended to provide the reader with information that may be useful in making a decision. It does not in any way constitute personalized recommendations. The reader should not use it as an investment recommendation or as legal, accounting or tax advice. All of the asset management strategies envisaged will require the validation of your usual legal and tax advice before being implemented.

This article is based on sources that Societe Generale Private Banking considers reliable and accurate at the time of writing. All information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. No Société Générale Private Banking entity can under any circumstances be held liable for any decision taken by an investor on the basis of this information.

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