Structured Products We Handle
Auto-Callable Notes
High coupons that look like income — until the note is called early and your upside is capped while your downside isn't.
What it is
An auto-callable note is a structured product that pays an above-market coupon — often 8% to 15% a year — tied to the performance of an underlying stock, basket, or index. The note has a built-in 'knock-out' or 'call' level. If the underlying rises to that level on an observation date, the note is automatically called (redeemed early) and you get your principal back plus the coupon earned to date. Your upside is capped at the coupon. Your downside, however, is usually one-for-one with the underlying: if the asset falls far enough below a protection barrier at maturity, you absorb the full loss.
How it's sold
Auto-callables are frequently pitched to retirees and conservative investors as 'income' or 'yield' investments — an attractive story when bank CDs and bonds pay little. The high headline coupon does the selling. What often goes unexplained is that the investor is effectively selling downside insurance on a volatile asset in exchange for that coupon, and that the best realistic outcome is simply getting the coupon and principal back, not real growth.
What goes wrong
Two things commonly go wrong. First, when markets are calm the note gets called early, the investor's capital is returned, and they are left to reinvest at the same elevated risk — a treadmill that benefits the issuer's fees more than the investor. Second, when the underlying drops sharply through the barrier, the 'income' product turns into a large capital loss, often shocking investors who believed they had bought something safe. The asymmetry — capped gains, uncapped losses — is the core problem.
What a claim might look like
A claim may exist where the auto-callable was unsuitable for the investor's age, risk tolerance, income needs, or net worth; where the risks (early call, capped upside, 1:1 downside, issuer credit risk) were misrepresented or not adequately disclosed; or where the account was over-concentrated in these products. Damages can include out-of-pocket losses and, in some cases, the return a well-managed, suitable portfolio would have produced.
Other Structured Products We Handle
Worst-Of Notes
Your return depends on the worst performer of several assets — marketed as diversification, but it's the opposite. FINRA is reviewing these in 2026.
Learn morePrincipal-Protected Notes
'Protected' only at maturity, and only if the issuing bank stays solvent. The 2023 Credit Suisse wipeout showed what 'protected' can really mean.
Learn moreReverse Convertibles
A high coupon that can pay you back in depreciated stock instead of cash — effectively a sold put option dressed up as a bond.
Learn moreSteepeners
Interest tied to the spread between long- and short-term rates. When the yield curve flattened and inverted, these got crushed.
Learn moreMarket-Linked CDs
They look like FDIC-insured CDs, but only the principal is insured — the equity-linked returns are not. Sold to investors expecting CD-like safety.
Learn more
Talk to a structured products attorney — for free
Find out whether you have a claim in a free, confidential case evaluation. There is no obligation, and you pay no attorneys' fees unless we recover for you.*