IA admits defeat in structured product challenge against IFA

Follows criticism of structured products

The Investment Association (IA) has admitted defeat in a long-running challenge with an IFA in which the trade body was invited to pit a tracker fund against a portfolio of structured products, following its criticism of the vehicles.

In 2011, the Investment Association, then the Investment Management Association, took aim at structured products when it published research that compared an HSBC FTSE 100 tracker fund with NS&I Guaranteed Equity bonds, claiming that in nine out of ten years the tracker would outperform. In response, Lowes Financial Management offered Richard Saunders, then director general at the IMA, a ‘friendly challenge', selecting a portfolio of five structured products to pit against a low-cost tracker, chosen by the trade body, over the course of six years. Investec W&I launches structured produ...