Articles by Sophia Morrell
Rainy day in Georgia
Smith & Howard Wealth Management
Weathering the storm
Lehman Brothers' collapse has potentially ruinous consequences for the US structured products market. But delegates and speakers at the Structured Products West Coast Conference were surprisingly upbeat about the future and opportunities that have arisen…
Legal advice
Legal & General is enjoying success in the retail UK market with its capital-guaranteed bond series. However, as signs emerge that customers are looking beyond the FTSE to emerging markets, the company's product offering could diversify away from vanilla…
A structure out of all proportion?
Volatile markets have reignited the debate about the validity of constant proportion portfolio insurance, leaving investors cashed-out and locked in. Structurers are coming up with new ways to tackle the structure's weaknesses, but could bond and option…
Q&A: counterparty risk - Spot the differentiation
The credit quality of product issuers has become a prime concern following the downfall of US investment bank Bear Stearns. Sophia Morrell asks seven industry players - issuing banks, an index provider, a distributor, a risk analysis and pricing company…
Tapping grey power
Capturing the 'retiree dollar' is a potentially huge opportunity for structured products in the US, tailor-made as they are for the baby-boomer generation entering retirement. Addressing this market could be what tips structured products into the…
McGinn Smith - Safety lessons
After building its business financing home security companies, McGinn Smith gradually moved into distributing structured products to a risk averse client base. It is now planning how best to capture the opportunities provided by tattered financial…
Capital foundations
The overriding characteristic of today's structured products space in France is risk aversion, but that is not stifling innovation in a market where issuance volumes continue to rise. Regulatory compliance may instead prove to be 2008's main obstacle…
Climbing the mountain
Canada's structured products market has suffered serious setbacks such as allegations of misleading marketing and a rival product explosion to name but two. But tighter regulation and a raft of new thematic structures made speakers at the 2008 Structured…