What these products cost, and why coming through us does not add to it

It would be wrong to tell you a structured product is free. The issuer builds its margin, its hedging costs and its distribution costs into the terms of the note itself, which shows up as a slightly lower participation rate, a slightly tighter cap, or a slightly lower coupon than a cost-free version of the same structure would offer.

You will not see this as a line item, because it is not charged as one. It is expressed in the terms you are quoted. That is how these instruments work, at every issuer.

Here is the part that matters. The issuer prices the note the same way whether you come to it directly or through a distributor. The cost structure inside the product is identical either way.

Our commission comes out of that same embedded cost, not on top of it. Going direct does not get you a better participation rate or a wider cap; it simply means the issuer keeps the portion that would otherwise have come to us.

So in the only sense that affects your return, using Finwisor is effectively free. You invest at par, you get the same terms, and you pay us nothing separately.

Since the terms are the same either way, the question is not whether advice costs you something. It is whether the help is worth having: reading the term sheet properly, checking the issuer, sizing the allocation, and understanding what the structure does in the markets you actually fear.

Judge us on that. And keep asking about the embedded cost anyway, because a structure with a visibly weak participation rate or a tight cap is telling you something about how much has been taken out of it, whoever you buy it through.