Investors have taken some blows during the pandemic and financial turmoil of 2020, a new UK report reveals.
People who invested in structured financial products in recent years have probably seen one of the worst performances and returns in maturities since the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008/9, according to a North East financial adviser.
Market turmoil resulted in 16 among 235 structured product maturities in 2020 realising a capital loss. This compares against four loss-making maturities among 334 maturities in 2019. Average annualised returns for all 2020 maturities, including deposits were 3.52% against 5.73% in 2019 and 6.37% in 2018.
The latest analysis is featured in the Structured Products Annual Performance Review 2021, produced by Newcastle-based Lowes Financial Management, a leading UK financial adviser. The report provides a comprehensive overview of all UK retail structured product maturities throughout the preceding calendar year. It provides an independent summary of best and worst performing products.
Structured products have existed for around 30 years but remain a niche investment vehicle. These fixed-term products are market-linked and can be highly tailored, with some more risky than others.
Ian Lowes, MD of Lowes, said: “There’s no denying that coronavirus and its worldwide socioeconomic impacts have been colossal. The UK stock market has been in turmoil throughout the year and few investments have been immune to the dramatic turbulence.
“Notwithstanding the exceptional performance of the structured products sector in recent years, 2020 still represented another successful year for retail structured products. Almost 70% of all products maturing last year generated positive returns for investors; fewer than 7% returned a loss. The rest simply returned investor capital, having protected it from the fall in the market.”
Sector annualised returns may have dropped on recent years and against the 6.27% average of the last decade (Jan 2010 – Dec 2019), but they remained inflation-beating. While there were some products that resulted in a capital loss, this still represented less than 7% of the overall market.
Ian Lowes added: “All of these maturities that made a loss were inherently riskier share or commodities linked plans, many of which were already forecast to make losses even before the pandemic struck.”
Lowes, which has frequently been recognised as amongst the best UK investment advisers in various national awards, has become one of only a few specialists in the structured products sector. As well as analysing the performance of all structured products and data covering more than 8,000 plans, Lowes has its own process for identifying ‘Preferred’ plans.
The Lowes ‘Preferred’ maturities (55 out of a total of 235) plans outperformed their respective sub-sector averages in most instances with an average annualised return of 4.44% across an average 5.3 years. None of the 16 loss-making plans that matured in 2020 were granted Lowes ‘Preferred’ status.
Ian Lowes added: “We are delighted with the inflation-beating performance of our ‘Preferred’ plans. The average return of the top quartile of those ‘Preferred’ plans was 9.57%.
“More generally, the structured products sector continues to evolve and develop. The sector is well regulated, has become a lot less complex, and many plans regularly outperform other investment products, while providing contingent capital protection against market falls. They can no longer be dismissed by any independent investment adviser.”
A copy of the Annual Performance Review can be found by clicking here: https://www.lowes.co.uk/SPReview2021