Proper workflow to sync material animation to particle age in Max?

[Fabrice]

The timing rollouts control how an operator interfaces directly with a given particle. It doesn't have any effect on keyframes applied to input materials.

To change colors you'll have to use particle mapping channels input into a blend or gradient map of your material. There is not currently a way to directly sync material keyframes to particle lifespans.

Ok, so there's no way to have a particle fade out to slowly disappear before being deleted by the delete operator?