With every day that passes a few more policyholders unwittingly lose the value of their 10th anniversary With Profits Bond guarantee as the date for them to exercise the option expires. Unlike most insurance companies, however, Aviva have allowed policyholders who pass their 10th anniversary guarantee date to carry forward the value of the guarantee.

We've been long concerned that by carrying-forward the No-MVR Guarantee policyholders might be lulled into thinking that they do not need to take any action. This would be an expensive mistake. We've argued that Aviva must do more to explain to policyholders that these no MVR Guarantees are extremely valuable but only if policyholders switch out or cash in.

After Professional Adviser joined in the campaign, Aviva have made some changes to the wording of their 10th anniversary letter and have agreed to improve the quality of their ad hoc statements.

Aviva are caught in the common position for insurance companies of managing a conflict of interest. On the one hand they know that if every policyholder understood this guarantee and cashed-in they would need to raid the Inherited Estate they acquired in last year's reattribution exercise by hundreds of millions of pounds. On the other hand, they are required by the Financial Services Authority to treat customers fairly and Aviva's head of investment marketing has stated that Aviva's "own advice is currently to switch out of with-profits (or surrender, if the money is needed) to benefit from the guarantee."

We call on the personal finance media to help policyholders urgently get to grips with their with-profits guarantees.

Readers wanting to know more about 10th anniversary guarantees can receive our free Aviva Aluminium Report.

Professional Adviser ran the following article on the front page of their February 18th 2010 edition.