Why are struc prods as closely guarded as the KFC recipe?

I have never been a fan of structured products. I've always considered them to be too rigid and opaque, offering little insight on charges or how returns are generated. To a certain degree I was correct in my appraisal. Try as I might I could not find out what was going on under the bonnet of these things. I already knew they normally contained a mixture of zero coupon bonds and options, but I could not get any specific details. I spoke to several providers and got nowhere. I even emailed a question to a webinar of structured product experts and was told I didn't need to know how t...