Depending on your needs, the wide range of structured investment products available could provide diversification for your portfolio. Some of the other benefits include:
- You can protect some or all of the original capital (with Capital Protected products)
- You can take potential returns as income or use them for growth
- You can choose from a wide range of plans
- You earn potentially higher returns by investing for fixed terms
- You can use them to invest in an ISA or SIPP
But, structured investments are not for everyone, because they also have some disadvantages:
- You cannot access your cash for the fixed term (often 5-6 years)
- You could lose some or all of your money (with capital-at-risk products)
- Your potential returns can be linked to volatile assets or the stock market
- Your potential for higher returns comes with potentially higher risk
- You often have to make a minimum investment which might not suit you
Use our free comparison service to see if structured investment products can meet your investment objectives and apply today.
The safety of your original capital depends on the ability of the counterparty (the institution providing the underlying assets, rather than the product provider) to repay your investment at the end of the term. You can assess the strength of a counterparty, and therefore the relative risk to your investment, by comparing their credit rating score, from AAA to D, using a credit rating agency such as Standard & Poor's (www.standardandpoors.com) or Fitch (www.fitchratings.com).