Would you go near a death bond?

Plans to ban traded life policy (TLP) investments may have consigned the products to the investment bin – but advocates say they offer benefits like no other asset class.

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Plans to ban traded life policy (TLP) investments may have consigned the products to the investment bin - but advocates say they offer benefits like no other asset class.

Toxic, dangerous, damaging and high risk – just some of the words used, including by the FSA, to describe traded life policy investments, or so-called ‘death bonds’. We may soon be able to add the following: banned The FSA may be delivered a death sentence of its very own to TLPs in November when it outlined plans to ban their sale and promotion. It even likened some policies to ‘ponzi’ schemes. Citing evidence of poor design and marketing, it said TLPs are unsuitable for most retail investors. A series of high-profile failures – most notably Keydata – have damaged the asset cla...

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