We use a brand new data-set built from French supervisory reports to investigate the drivers of the participation rates served on euro-denominated life-insurance contracts over the period 1999-2013. Our analysis confirms practitioners' insight on the alignment with the 10-years French government bond, yet we show that on aggregate, insurers serve less than this target. Our data indicate that financial margins are more strictly targeted than participation. We find evidence that lapses are fairly uncorrelated with participation, suggesting other levers to pilot surrenders. If higher asset returns can imply better yield for policyholders, riskier portfolios do not translate into better participation.