Can with-profits recover from Equitable blow?

Critics have always accused with-profits of smoke and mirrors and after last week's announcement by the Equitable, most of its policyholders would not disagree. With-profits has been described as non-transparent but through lots of complicated actuarial calculations investors in a fund get smoothed returns. In good years they forfeit some gains to compensate for poor or negative returns in not so good years. Equitable's announcement that it was cutting 16% off policyholders' pots in its with-profits fund due to stock market fluctuations is therefore all the more surprising. With-profit...