Franklin Templeton repositions US ETF platform

Jul 13th, 2022 | By | Category: ETF and Index News

Franklin Templeton has announced a series of marketing and strategy adjustments within its US ETF line-up as the firm aims to better align its offering while capitalizing on the now-established strength of its brand name.

Patrick O’Connor, global head of ETFs at Franklin Templeton Investments.

Patrick O’Connor, Global Head of ETFs at Franklin Templeton.

Effective 1 August, 13 ETFs that currently contain the ‘Liberty’ and ‘LibertyQ’ monikers will drop these naming conventions.

Liberty ETFs refer to funds that are actively managed in-house at Franklin Templeton, while LibertyQ ETFs are passive funds deploying proprietary smart beta and factor-based strategies.

Following the move, the ETFs will more closely align with the majority of the firm’s 56-strong fund line-up which simply sport the ‘Franklin’ introduction.

Commenting on the repositioning, Patrick O’Connor, Head of Global ETFs at Franklin Templeton, said: “Since we officially launched our ETF business, we have been very pleased with the key milestones we’ve reached in our expansion. We believe these updates will help bring clarity to our clients now that we have built out such a robust suite of offerings across both indexed and active ETFs.”

Jennifer Ball, Head of US Marketing at Franklin Templeton, added: “While we are proud of the growth and evolution of LibertyShares, we are energized by the opportunity to better leverage our firm’s more established Franklin Templeton brand. Ensuring we clearly articulate our offerings as we continue to expand our presence in the ETF marketplace is a priority.”

Franklin Templeton has also announced that an additional four LibertyQ ETFs will not only drop their current naming convention but will also be revamped with new investment strategies, names, tickers, and underlying indices, as well as lower expense ratios.

The Franklin LibertyQ Global Equity ETF (FLQC US) will become the Franklin US Equity Index ETF (USPX US) and will track the Morningstar US Target Market Exposure Index, providing traditional passive exposure to US large and mid-cap stocks. The fund will have an expense ratio of just 0.03%.

Meanwhile, the Franklin LibertyQ Global Dividend ETF (FLQD US), Franklin LibertyQ International Equity Hedged ETF (FLQH US), and Franklin LibertyQ Emerging Markets ETF (FLQE US) will become the Franklin US Core Dividend Tilt Index ETF (UDIV US), Franklin International Core Dividend Tilt Index ETF (DIVI US), and Franklin Emerging Market Core Dividend Tilt Index ETF (DIEM US).

The three revamped funds will also track new Morningstar indices providing broad US, global developed ex-US, and emerging markets equity exposure while tilting constituent weights to enhance overall dividend yields.

UDIV, DIVI, and DIEM will come with expense ratios of 0.06%, 0.09%, and 0.19%, respectively.

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