Retirement for self-employed professionals: the Cnavpl, the pension funds and the rules to know in 2026

Your retirement as a self-employed professional depends primarily on one question: is your profession regulated or not? If it is, your basic pension is managed by the CNAVPL (National Old-Age Insurance Fund for the Liberal Professions) and your supplementary pension by the pension fund specific to your profession. If it is not regulated, you are not covered by the CNAVPL: your pension is managed by the French National Old-Age Insurance Fund (Assurance retraite).

This page is intentionally incomplete. It covers the system (who manages what), age and contribution period benchmarks, phased retirement, and the necessary procedures. It does not cover contribution rates, supplementary pension rates for each fund, detailed pension calculations, or the situation of individuals who work or live outside of France.

Regulated or unregulated: the starting point

Service-public.fr distinguishes between two cases.

For unregulated professions, the public service website groups the rules with those for tradespeople and shopkeepers. Supplementary pensions for this category are not addressed here: this information should be verified on the official website before making any decisions.

The main pension funds for regulated professions

Service-public.fr states that "the main pension funds for regulated professions are as follows." The list is therefore not presented as exhaustive.

Is your profession not listed in this table? The list is partial: the fund that concerns you must be checked before any action is taken.

Two floors for regulated professions

The basic pension, managed by the Cnavpl

Service-public.fr indicates that "retirement and disability/death benefits for regulated liberal professions" are managed by the Cnavpl. Basic retirement benefits are governed by articles L643-1 to L643-6 and D643-1 to D643-16 of the Social Security Code.

Two numerical markers appear on the service-public page, verified on May 13, 2026:

• the value of the point from the Cnavpl: €0.6599 since January 1, 2026; ;
• the minimum contribution basic retirement: "the minimum annual amount of contributions is €573".

This page does not explain how points are earned or how the pension is calculated. It does not provide any contribution rates. To find out your contribution rate, please contact your pension fund or consult the official website.

Supplementary retirement benefits, specific to your pension fund

For a regulated self-employed professional, service-public.fr specifies that the amount of supplementary pension benefits "depends on the pension fund to which they are affiliated, according to their profession." Therefore, there is no single rule that this page could provide. A doctor affiliated with CARMF and a chartered accountant affiliated with CAVEC do not belong to the same fund, and therefore do not have the same contact person for this supplementary pension.

Disability-death

For disability and death insurance for regulated liberal professions, the contributions page refers you to the pension fund of the profession concerned for more information.

When to retire: age, quarters of contributions, phased retirement

The public service page dedicated to retirement for liberal professions gives the following benchmarks for regulated professions (verified on May 13, 2026).

The date of September 1, 2025 matters: the age of 60 is linked to the effective date of the pension.

The procedures

For a regulated liberal profession, the public service page indicates:

1. the retirement application is filed "during the quarter preceding the one in which he wishes to retire"; ;
2. It can be done online, on the website info-retraite.fr; ;
3. The insured must also inform the business formalities desk of the cessation of their activity.

The procedures for unregulated professions are different: they are not covered here.

What if your profession is not regulated?

In the section reserved for artisans, traders and unregulated professionals, service-public.fr provides two benchmarks for basic retirement:

• the most favourable rate is the full rate of 50 %; ;
• It is reduced by 1.25 % per missing quarter, for insured persons born from 1953 onwards, and the reduction applies to a maximum of 20 quarters (the page does not specify whether this reduction is understood in rate points or as a percentage of the pension).

This page only displays these two markers in this tab. Do not apply them to a regulated profession without first verifying with your social security fund.

Numerical example (fictitious profile)

Situation. Marc is a consultant, an unregulated freelance profession. He was born in 1970: his legal retirement age is 64, which is 2034. He has accrued 160 quarters of contributions. For his generation, the reference period is 172 quarters (the number of quarters accrued is an assumption based on the hypothetical profile).

Issue. He plans to retire as soon as he turns 64. How many quarters of contributions does he need, and how many count towards the pension reduction?

Strategy. Measure the gap before setting the departure date, and compare two hypotheses: leave at 64 with 160 quarters, or postpone the departure while validating the missing quarters.

Result.

Starting at age 64 with 160 quarters of contributions, Marc is 12 quarters short. In the 148-quarter scenario, he is 24 quarters short, but the reduction only applies to a maximum of 20 quarters.

The public service website states that the full rate of 50 % is "reduced by 1.25 % per missing quarter." It does not specify whether this reduction is expressed as a percentage point or a percentage of the pension. Therefore, this example does not provide a rate or an amount: the exact calculation must be verified with the French National Retirement Insurance Fund (Assurance retraite).

This profile is fictitious. The number of validated quarters is an assumption. The calculation uses the guidelines from service-public.fr for unregulated professions (172 quarters, maximum of 20 quarters) and does not provide the amount of a pension or the outcome of your application.

What changes depending on your situation

• Your profession Regulated or unregulated, and in the first case, your pension fund. It is this fund that determines the supplementary pension.
• Your year of birth : it determines the legal age and the number of reference quarters.
• Your departure date : phased retirement at 60 depends on the effective date of the pension.
• Your business activity outside of France or your plan to leave France These are not covered here. The rule depends on your situation and must be examined on a case-by-case basis.
• Your other sources of retirement A reference page cannot add them up. No results are guaranteed.