Structured Perspectives
By Adrian Neave, Managing Director Gilliat Financial Solutions
The importance of market views
8 February 2011
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, discusses the importance of having a cogent market view...
Is inflation too good to be true?
25 January 2011
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, looks at the type of products that the structured product industry might provide...
The Benefits of RDR for retail Structured Products
26 November 2010
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, looks at the positive impact RDR might have on retail structured products.
Pricing for maximum return
14 October 2010
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, looks at the difficulties structured products in the current climate and how returns can be maximised.
Structures: Worthwhile in a bull market?
24 SEPTEMBER 2010
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, considers whether the protection offered by structures is worthwhile in a bull market.
The practicalities of valuing structured products for retail clients
SEPTEMBER 2010
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, is hosting a roundtable for investment professionals to discuss how we might develop a more user friendly method of quantitative valuation for IFAs to use for their own purposes and for presentation to clients.
Product Pricing and the RDR
August 2010
This week Adrian Neave, Gilliat's Managing Director, looks at how the RDR might affect the pricing of structured products in the retail market.
Structured Perspectives: Do we really need the children fighting?
JuLY 2010
In recent times there has been substantial comment concerning the ‘legitimacy’ of structured products as a retail product. Much of this has come from singularly ill informed sources or stems from sources with axes to grind.
Multiple Underlyings: Does the reward justify the risk?
JuLY 2010
Adrian Neave, our resident structured products guru, looks at whether the increased payoffs possible from using multiple underlyings are sufficient to justify the risk.
Counterparty Crucial For Safe Business
June 2010
Counterparty risk continues to feature highly in the minds of advisors and investors, nowhere more so than in the structured product arena. The burning question is how to show that a due diligence process has been followed that justifies the use of products hedged by a particular bank. In order to create a robust process for this risk assessment the first question to be answered is ‘What is counterparty risk?’
Structured products: a reasonable investment?
february 2010
Are structures providing reasonable levels of return to investors? At the time of writing this article 3.65% appears to be the best one year fixed rate available from the banking sector (source: Moneyfacts, 05/02/10), rising to 4.7% for 3 years and 5.25% for five years...
A snapshot of 2010
january 2010
At this time of year it is customary to review what’s happened over the previous twelve months. I think that we are all heartily sick of the sound of Lehman, Keydata, NDF, Arc, FSA review etc. etc. so let’s look forward to taking retail structured products onward and upward. In my opinion there are four main areas to consider...
Range accrual - an alternative Payoff
december 2009
In the retail space the pay-offs that we see are usually no more than tweaks on the standards:
- Capital protected growth plans
- Reverse convertibles (the income plans)
- Call spreads (capped, geared growth plans)
- Autocallables (kickout plans)
I believe that many advisers are unaware of the variety of other payoffs that are available...
Life after the FSA review
November 2009
Adrian Neave, Gilliat's resident structured products guru discusses the big news - the publication of the FSA enquiry into Lehman backed structured products. This came in the guise of three individual papers; the first covers the provision of advice in this area, the other two cover provider responsibilities and TCF.
Structured Products: Taking Stock
October 2009
In recent weeks the structured product arena has undergone noticeable change. These changes can be considered in three parts; regulatory, commercial and investor sentiment. All are likely to have significant impacts on the use of structures in the retail market.
