Structured Notes
As of June 2025 we are requiring advisors who are new to structured notes to complete the courses and forward the completion certificates to todd.penrod@hbwadvisory.com. Please see the First Trust information below.
At HBW Advisory you've got access to several of the industry's best providers of structured notes. Two of the largest brokers are First Trust and iCapital, both of whom are popular with HBW advisors. We are fans of the products for their ability to control risk and define outcomes. That said they carry forms of risk like any other investment.
Rather than try to recreate the training wheel, here are some resources for advisors to use in learning or refreshing their knowledge of these investments.
The First Trust and iCapital websites both require registrations. Don't let that deter you. Both provide simple to follow videos to get you familiar with structured investments.
For First Trust go to https://www.ftportfolios.com/ and then navigate to Structured Investments and then Educational Resources. You'll find several 2 pagers that illustrate and explain the behavior of structured notes. Here's the critical part, go to the Resources tab and locate the structured products education courses.
At iCapital go to simonmarkets.com to register then navigate to their Learning Center on Structured Investments.
While we don't work with Halo directly they have a lot of very well written articles that also are a great way to learn the structure note landscape. You can find their published info at https://haloinvesting.com/category/structured-notes-101/
Halo also has a Youtube Channel
Morningstar provides a more cautionary take than you'll find most places:
A 13-yield-what-could-go-wrong
One bit of analysis that has proven somewhat elusive is detailed performance numbers across the product universe. This makes some sense given the time dependent nature of point to point calculations. Here's one such article we found, albeit from 2022. Please set client expectations appropriately.
And last, but not least, we suggest you begin asking your preferred wholesaler a lot of questions.
As structured notes have become increasingly popular it's important to note that they are not without risks. Please make sure you understand those risk and present them fairly to clients before investing any client assets in the products.
