About two-thirds of SSIAs will mature in March and April this year. The general consensus is that many savers will opt for instant gratification, cashing in their chips and heading off for that holiday of a lifetime or whatever their particular SSIA fantasy entails, rather than rolling over their savings.

But there are rumblings that this mass exodus of cash, if it does in fact materialise, may result in exit penalties being levied on encashments made from certain funds.

It emerged last December that Ark Life had reduced the unit price being paid out on some of its unit-linked investment funds. The price reduction was attributed to the huge outflows of cash being paid on maturing SSIA accounts at the time, which resulted in net cash outflow from certain funds.

The result was that some customers who exited the fund at that time were effectively penalised for the high-level encashment and received a lower payout when cashing in their policies than they had been previously advised to expect.

Considering that just under 50 per cent of SSIAs will mature in April alone, should those planning to cash their savings around that time be worried?

Individuals with deposit-type accounts will not be affected, Mark O'Sullivan, a director at financial advisers Becketts, says. However, SSIA holders in unit-linked funds should be aware that exit penalties could potentially arise.

If the cash inflows to the fund are not sufficient to meet the SSIA encashments, then the fund may have no choice but to sell off investments. In some cases, the costs triggered by such disposals may be passed on in the form of a reduced unit price to those exiting the scheme.

"People are taking out their money, they are looking for a home for their money, and I think there's more money coming out rather than in," O'Sullivan says.

"There's a lot of people cashing in their SSIA maturities rather than rolling them over," he continues. "Effectively there's going to be a lot of turbulence."

"There is a potential that there could be an adjustment in [ unit] prices," he says.

Although these price adjustments may not materialise, those who are concerned by the possibility of exit charges could consider switching from their unit-linked side of the fund in January or February, he says, and holding their nest egg in cash until maturity.