Monday, 20 February 2012

What are Structured Notes




No one will easily forget the turbulent times that 2008 and the early part of 2009 brought with them. Bubble after bubble burst; house prices hit rock-bottom; formerly ‘stable’ companies crumbled into insolvency by the ‘bucket-load’. The markets truly suffered a crisis that has been seared into the minds of financial professionals.

How can, then, individuals and institutions alike, now invest confidently into financial products?
How can they make asset allocation decisions beyond simply saying: ‘100% of my portfolio into Cash’ while still keeping the peace of mind that their initial capital will be preserved?

Simple.

Structured Products.

A Structured Product or Note is an investment vehicle that can be written or ‘structured’ in many ways, according to investors specifications; all range of asset classes, maturity dates, risk / return levels, liquidity, and even prices can be accommodated for!

Benefits:

-       Capital Protection
o   They can be written to guarantee to return 100% of your initial investment
-       Auto-Call Potential
o   They can be written so that, once certain criteria have been met, the note is redeemed and the growth is realised

As a reference, an example is described below. It is a note that significantly reduces the risk by giving up some potential return. It invests into 4 soft commodities; Corn, Sugar, Cotton and Soybeans.

-       100% capital protection, potential annual return of 10% per annum
o   Regardless of the performance, you will receive 100% of your initial investment, but you can ‘only’ receive 10% per year
-       3 years maturity
o   The note will ‘mature’ or finish in 3 years, in which case you will either receive your initial investment, or the growth up to 10% / annum, whichever is higher

This is a great example of how investors can invest safely into an ‘interesting’ asset class, with only a medium term commitment for tying up their money!

New notes are being written weekly, so for an updated list or for more information, just contact the Portfolio Team at Montpelier.  

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