Structured financial products are not for everyone
The complexity of some makes them difficult to fit into any plan
A leading financial planner says she has never had reason to use a structured product in a financial plan, while another says he uses them but they make up less than 2% of the investments he recommends. “I’ve never seen an investor who has been happy with a structured product as few of them are profitable,” says 2018 Financial Planner of the Year Janet Hugo of Sterling Wealth. She says she has not had to recommend a product with a guarantee for anyone because she matches cash-flow needs to the investment strategy and because offshore investments, with both market and rand exchange rate risks, are usually in the seven-to-10-year strategy, giving these investments long enough to work through expected market cycles. Therefore paying insurance for something like that makes no sense, she says. The complexity of these products makes them difficult to fit into any plan, and if insurance is needed for a specific concern such as US dollar or US market weakness, it would be better to hedge th...
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