With-profits policies have taken a hammering over the last few years, and rightly so. Although investment in them has all but dried up because of the problems, if you’re at all interested in knowing more about them, then the FT.com has posted an article entitled Demystifying With-Profit Policies.
In theory, they are a nice idea, as they are intended to smooth the fluctuations in the stock market, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be making much of a comeback in the near future though, because of investors previous experience of misselling and the complicated nature of the product.