POLICYHOLDERS of troubled mutual Equitable Life have been urged to back the society's proposed compromise deal as the "only realistic way" to end its financial instability.

The society has been dogged by uncertainty since it lost a legal showdown in the House of Lords over the rights of its Guaranteed Annuity Rate policyholders (GARs), leaving it with a £1.06bn pensions liability.

Equitable is proposing to give GARs an average increase in their policy value of 17.5 per cent in exchange for them giving up their right to guaranteed pension rates.

As part of the compromise deal, it is offering to increase non-GAR policies by 2.5 per cent in return for policyholders agreeing not to sue the society over being kept in the dark about the full extent of the GAR liabilities when they were sold their policy.

GARs will also be able to use their fund to buy an annuity from other pension providers, or to buy other products from the society.

Equitable said the increase for non-GAR policyholders was less than that for GARs because the potential rights they would be giving up had a lower value, and were uncertain.

It said there were differing legal opinions over how successful non-GAR claims would be, and because non-GARs account for about 75 per cent of the with-profits fund, they would be largely suing themselves.

Equitable will fund the deal using £1.06bn of with-profits fund growth it set aside after its House of Lords defeat, as well as £250m it will get from Halifax if it can reach a compromise before next March.