Structured product transfers need to become easier to encourage more advisers to use them, Ian Lowes has said.
The managing director of Lowes Financial Management said the structured product sector needed to adopt "some sort of transfer protocol system" - like with Isa transfers where providers can send funds to one another.
He said: "When it comes to a direct investment, we haven't got any of that. You have to send your application off to Provider A to get the money back, to pay it into the client's bank account, to then get it issued to a cheque, to send it off to Provider B. It is a bit like the 1990s with unit trust switching.
"I think the sector could do something in terms of improving that."
Mr Lowes also said the growth of structured product funds was likely to continue to encourage more advisers to consider them.
He said: "The utilisation of structured products in a portfolio can become very admin and resource heavy, and whilst I don't find it difficult to assess the market and see which products are better than others, for others who haven't really been introduced to that, perhaps because it has never been part of their world, it is the starting block for a huge evolution on their part, to the extent that deferring to an expert manager, like ourselves, is going to be one of the options.
"I think we are now at half a dozen that have been launched. They have all got slightly different nuances, all got excellent managers, and I think you are going to see that while the majority of the IFA sector might not have adopted structured products, they will recognise that structured product funds are a solution."
damian.fantato@ft.com
