The UK Structured Products Association has launched a free tool aimed at helping financial advisers find out whether the inclusion of structured products in a portfolio could improve its performance.
The portfolio optimiser tool allows advisers to input a portfolio, swap out particular components and replace them with structured products to see what impact that has on the portfolio's overall risk profile and its projected performance.
The UKSPA says this is the first tool that has been created to analyse structured products in this way.
Zak De Mariveles, the chairman of the UKSPA, said: "Investing without structured products is like playing a team with one man down - it's harder to compete if key players are missing.
"We have designed portfolio optimiser as an easy-to-use and effective way to see how structured products can be taken off the bench to help optimise a portfolio line up."
He said the tool used "independently verified data" from research firm Future Value Consultants.
The tool allows advisers to either create their own structured product for analysis or select a product that is already listed on FVC's database.
The UKSPA is the membership organisation for structured product providers and has 17 members, including HSBC, Investec and Walker Crips.
Structured products are a fixed-term investment vehicle that is linked to an index such as the FTSE 100 or a specific investment, usually with the promise of a return of capital provided certain criteria are met, such as the index not falling below a certain level during the product's term.
According to analysis by structured products analysts Lowes Financial Management, there were 334 product maturities during 2019, with four of these returning a loss.
damian.fantato@ft.com
