IT contractors and other financial services customers should not rule out structured products as a rule, according to an expert.
Julie Smith, head of structured products research at Fair Investment Company, pointed out that the investments have received bad press of late, but cautioned against judging all of them negatively.
A recent Which? report included structured products in a list of “useless” financial products, labelling them as “confusing, complex and costly”.
However, Ms Smith said that there are many different forms of product in this investment class and some could be worth the attention of consumers.
“Not all structured products are complex. Some are and some aren’t, but can’t this be said for any type of investment?,” she commented, before claiming that capital-protected structured products tend to be simpler than other forms.
In addition, the expert suggested that it is unfair to call all structured products costly, as some offer protection against market turbulence which investors may consider to be good value for any loss of returns.
