Love or hate them... structured products are back on the menu

The death knell for many structured products was sounded on 27 October 2009. That was the day the FSA announced “tough” action to help investors who received unsuitable advice or misleading literature when they bought a structured product backed by Lehman Brothers, which had collapsed a year earlier. It was the first time some investors had heard of counterparty risk and, for some of their advisers, it was reason enough to stop recommending them altogether. But advisers were already wary of the products. Some believed the commission offered on some structures was too high – an aver...