How can we make investors smile again?

Given ongoing market mayhem, I'd say investors have slid down that curve in recent weeks - and that got me thinking about how structured products could learn a thing or two from the general insurance industry. Most - presumably all - people buy insurance to protect items of value, such as cars, property and jewellery. And they do it with the knowledge that, if they are forced to make a claim, they will usually have to pay an excess - i.e. they assume the first part of the risk - with the insurer settling the balance. Structured products, in contrast, often work in the opposite way. In...