The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

Franklin Templeton
California-headquartered investment manager Franklin Templeton, with more than $1.6 trillion in assets under management, has launched the New York-listed Franklin Small Cap Enhanced ETF, a new addition to the firm’s active ETF lineup in the US. FSML aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation using a multi-factor investment framework that incorporates a proprietary conviction factor using insights from Franklin Templeton’s specialist managers – an approach designed to offer a more informed way to access small-cap opportunities.

FSML is managed by Adrian Chan, Eric Johnson, and Jacqueline Kenney, members of the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions (FTIS) team, the firm’s multi-asset and quantitative research unit. The fund invests primarily in equity securities of small-capitalization companies within the Russell 2000 Index universe. Its investment process is built on a proprietary multi-factor model that evaluates companies across quality, value, sentiment, and alternative signals, while incorporating a conviction signal derived from holdings-level views of four Franklin Templeton Specialized Investment Managers: ClearBridge Investments, Franklin Templeton, Royce Investment Partners, and Putnam Investment Management.

“By combining systematic insights with the perspectives of seasoned small-cap specialists, we believe FSML offers investors a differentiated way to access small-cap opportunities,” said David Mann, head of ETF product and capital markets at Franklin Templeton.

Under normal market conditions, the fund invests at least 80 per cent of its net assets in equity securities of small-capitalization companies, including derivatives with similar economic characteristics. The fund may invest up to 10 per cent of its assets in foreign securities.