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Matthew Morris, director of website www.exitwith-profits.co.uk, has put together a report focused on "spot guarantees", which allow an early surrender of a plan on a pre-determined date with a guarantee applying that the investor's value can not be reduced by the insurer.

On any other date the value may be reduced and Mr Morris said it was common for insurers to reduce the value by, on average, 13 to 15 per cent.

According to Mr Morris' report up to 300,000 people could use the loophole of spot guarantees as a "get out of jail free card" in 2009.

Mr Morris warned if investors miss the specified period in the guarantee - often as short as a day - they risked missing the opportunity to exit the policy and rescue some of their original investment.

He said that 1999 to 2003 were the boom years for with profits policies - in 1999 alone 600,000 people invested around £12bn.

Of these, he said 300,000 were likely to have 10-year guarantees – totalling around £6bn in value.

Mr Morris said: "Guarantees are on the whole, not being utilised. Few policyholders know they have them – or more importantly, understand their significance.

"We believe this could potentially be affecting 1000 people a day that could exercise a guarantee, but are not."

Colin Jackson, director of Essex-based Baronworth Investment Services, said many advisers were already aware of the loophole.

He said: "A number of with profits bonds offered a 10-year guarantee, in fact that was one of their main selling points.

"I am not sure that many endowment policies have the clause. Even assuming that a majority do, the important thing is when the date is and many policies may have already passed their sell-by date."

He said with profits holders should take a close look at their own policies to see if the get-out clause was included.

Mr Jackson said: "They should contact the organisation that sold them the policy and ask them to explain how the anniversary period works. They could also ask why they were not informed about the guarantee when they sold the policy."

Mr Morris' website aims to highlight, educate and inform the public about the problems associated with the policies.

He said: "With more than 10m people in possession of with-profit plans, it remains the biggest mainstream investment in the UK.

"We have no way of knowing for sure how much is mis-invested, but it is a high proportion and it is essential people look closely at the policy they currently have."