Is it the product or the person?

The ETF market is the latest segment of the industry to ask itself this question. It is a path which in the last decade has been trodden by the structured investments and split capital investment trust sectors.

Split capital trusts over the last decade have gone back to being a specialist sector within investment trusts and were never really appropriate to a wider investor base. Ironically, in a period of low cash returns, a portfolio of split-cap income shares combined with zero dividend preferences would be a good answer to many investors’ need for income. The structured investments market has proved remarkably robust in dusting itself down from the dark days of precipice bonds a decade ago, and more recently the Keydata debacle. Structured investment providers have responded to the cha...