Who would want to be a "with profit" policyholder these days? There was a time when you could give a Life Company your money, and rest assured in 25 years time you would get it back with a nice little bonus, and in the meantime you would be covered for life assurance.
Now, you have to very careful to whom you give your money too, as recently published results from Prudential and Friends Provident amply illustrate. Last year Prudential grew their "with profit" fund by 7.2% and so far this year Friends seem to have reduced their fund by a similar amount. Possibly not a very fair comparison bearing in mind most of the credit crunch woes only manifested themselves during the first 6 months of this year, but here again is n't this why we pay fund managers handsome salaries to forsee, and avoid, exactly this sort of downturn.
The Friends "with profit" fund has performed miserably now for many years, and now with the prospect of terminal bonuses being cut yet again policyholders should now review their options, and with the Goverment backed Northern Rock paying 6% per annum, for cash on deposit, this must look an attractive alternative.