Four reasons to avoid structured products

If you're thinking of investing in structured products, don't, says Tim Bennett. In fact, you should avoid them at all costs - they're just too complicated. Here's why.

"Be sceptical by all means, but to dismiss a whole investment area simply because we do not understand it is far from acceptable." That's how Ian Lowes of Lowes Financial Management defended structured products recently. He suggests that many of them such as the Legal and General FTSE Growth Plan 8 are "as simple to understand as an ETF or an Oeic". I'd beg to differ. Here's why.

What are structured products?

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.