Feel free to prepare and submit your suggested documentation improvement as a TRAK item.  I'll consider it for inclusion.
 
Robert Ramey

It took me quite some time to figure this one out.
It is mentioned in the documentation (2 lines, easily missed).
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_37_0/libs/serialization/doc/serialization.html#derivedpointers

Maybe add a big huge WARNING? Also please mention this fact in the examples!
(like in demo.cpp?)