100% Principal Protected Notes That Weren't Protected

From the New York Times

Questions about how Wall Street marketed yet another complex product, sold as solid and secure, are now emerging in investor arbitration cases. The instrument is named, inaptly as it turns out, "100 percent principal protected absolute return barrier notes."

Article described one couple who had been CD investors until their UBS broker convinced them to invest in principal-protected notes issued by Lehman Brothers. Those notes are now worth pennies on the dollar.