It is very sad to see many elderly people lost all of their lifetime savings in the structured products. Many lost several hundred thousand dollars, representing many years of hard work and savings by being frugal.
These folks are risk adverse. They place their money on fixed deposit to earn interest. In recent years, the interest rate dropped to 1%, way below the inflation rate. Each year, the interest earned on their savings is insufficient to provide a decent income for them to live on.
The financial institutions employed marketeers to recommend the structured products to these folks. This is highly irresponsible. These products have high risk, including the risk of losing their entire savings on a "credit event". Regardless of how small the risk, this type of financial product is NOT suitable to elderly people. They cannot afford to lose their entire savings on a gamble that the "credit event" will not happen.
There is clearly a strong case for the Monetary Authority of Singapore to take against the financial institutions. So far, MAS does not want to step in. They expect the elderly folks to be able to deal with the financial institutions. How is this possible?
I hope that MAS realise the pain that they have caused to so many helpless, elderly folks - first by allowing these toxic products to be sold to them, and now by not stepping in to help them seek suitable redress.
Why are these products "toxic"? They can cause the entire loss of the savings. This is much worse than investing in a diversified fund of equities.
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