Franklin Templeton announced Tuesday that it is acquiring volScout, an early-stage startup serving advisors with wealth management and institutional clients.
As part of the acquisition, Franklin Templeton disclosed that it had also hired volScout’s founding partners, Brad Berggren, Jon Orseck, and Roger Weber as part of the newly formed Franklin Managed Options Strategies, LLC, (Franklin MOST).
“Managed options strategies are a highly complementary addition to Franklin Templeton’s expanding menu of custom solutions, which advisors increasingly require to address the sophisticated needs of their clients,” said Roger Paradiso, head of product solutions for Franklin Templeton, in a statement. “Brad, Jon and Roger have a long and successful history of delivering managed options solutions at scale to clients across channels and vehicle types, and bringing aboard such experienced and forward-thinking talent helps fuel our ongoing innovation to anticipate and address evolving client needs.”
According to Franklin Templeton, Franklin MOST strategies will offer rules-based option selection based on volatility and maturity, real-time risk management and systematic market-linked portfolio rebalancing. “These features have the potential to enhance portfolio construction by helping advisors and clients manage both the risk and volatility of the overall portfolio, generally without altering its underlying asset allocation,” Franklin Templeton said in its release. “These strategies can have wide-ranging applicability across channels and vehicle types and can be delivered in an SMA format as well as through commingled vehicles and other private fund structures.”
The acquisition of the investment management firm, which provides managed options strategies to advisors, will add to Franklin Templeton’s custom solutions capabilities and managed account solutions. Franklin Templeton, a leader in the separately managed account (SMA) space, currently holds $110 billion in SMA assets under management (AUM).
The news comes as SMAs gain traction in the retirement industry space, as individual clients consider personalized approaches for their investment portfolios, and as managed account sponsors increase their SMA customization capabilities. Cerulli data from 2022 reports that managed account asset programs climbed to 23.8% in 2021, reaching a high of $10.7 trillion.
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Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.
