Franklin Templeton Canada Announces Fee Reductions and Proposes Changes to Certain Funds

TORONTO, Aug. 20, 2020 /CNW/ - Franklin Templeton Canada today announced fee reductions and proposed changes to certain funds to ensure its product line-up remains competitive and positioned to meet the evolving needs of Canadian investors.

Fee Reductions

Detailed in the table below, the following fee reductions for series A, F and T of Franklin Global Growth Fund and Franklin Global Growth Corporate Class are being implemented on October 1, 2020. These funds seek to provide Canadians with long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities of growth companies, with any market size capitalization, located anywhere in the world.

		NEW FEES				FEE SAVINGS
Series		Management Fee	Fixed Administration Fee	Total Fees		Total
A		1.80%	0.15%	1.95%		-0.27
F		0.80%	0.15%	0.95%		-0.27
T		1.80%	0.15%	1.95%		-0.27

With these fee reductions, all investors will have access to the lowest fee in the series. As a result, Series PA, PF and PT of Franklin Global Growth Fund will be closed to new investors after the close of business on September 30, 2020 and will be closed to new investments after the close of business on December 3, 2020.

Fund Mergers

Each terminating fund in the table below is proposed to merge into the corresponding continuing fund on a tax-deferred basis. Each continuing fund has an investment objective and investment strategies that are substantially similar and an identical fee structure as its respective terminating fund.

Except as noted otherwise, each terminating fund:

• will be closed to new investors after the close of business today, August 20, 2020;
• is a class of shares of Franklin Templeton Corporate Class Ltd. and is proposed to merge by a Plan of Arrangement or otherwise;
• will be merged on or around November 20, 2020, pending the receipt of all necessary approvals; and if not merged, will be closed to all new investments or will be terminated on or around November 13, 2020.

Terminating Fund	Continuing Fund
Franklin ActiveQuant U.S. Corporate Class	Franklin ActiveQuant U.S. Fund
Franklin Bissett Canadian Balanced Corporate Class	Franklin Bissett Canadian Balanced Fund
Franklin Bissett Canadian Equity Corporate Class^1	Franklin Bissett Canadian Equity Fund
Franklin Bissett Dividend Income Corporate Class	Franklin Bissett Dividend Income Fund
Franklin Bissett Money Market Corporate Class	Franklin Bissett Money Market Fund
Franklin Global Growth Corporate Class^2	Franklin Global Growth Fund^2
Franklin Mutual Global Discovery Corporate Class	Franklin Mutual Global Discovery Fund^3
Franklin Quotential Balanced Growth Corporate Class Portfolio	Franklin Quotential Balanced Growth Portfolio
Franklin Quotential Balanced Income Corporate Class Portfolio	Franklin Quotential Balanced Income Portfolio
Franklin Quotential Diversified Equity Corporate Class Portfolio	Franklin Quotential Diversified Equity Portfolio
Franklin Quotential Diversified Income Corporate Class Portfolio	Franklin Quotential Diversified Income Portfolio^3
Franklin Quotential Growth Corporate Class Portfolio	Franklin Quotential Growth Portfolio
Franklin U.S. Monthly Income Corporate Class	Franklin U.S. Monthly Income Fund^3
Franklin U.S. Monthly Income Hedged Corporate Class^4 5 6
Franklin U.S. Opportunities Corporate Class	Franklin U.S. Opportunities Fund
Franklin U.S. Rising Dividends Corporate Class^4	Franklin U.S. Rising Dividends Fund
Franklin U.S. Rising Dividends Hedged Corporate Class^5
Templeton EAFE Developed Markets Fund^7 8	Templeton International Stock Fund II^9
Templeton Emerging Markets Corporate Class	Templeton Emerging Markets Fund
Templeton Global Smaller Companies Corporate Class	Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund^3
Templeton Growth Fund, Ltd.^6 8 10	Templeton Growth Fund^11
Templeton Growth Corporate Class^6 12
Templeton International Stock Corporate Class^4	Templeton International Stock Fund II^9

^1	Series OT, PT and T of this fund will be closed to new investments after the close of business today, August 20, 2020 and terminated on or around November 6, 2020.
^2	The fees on Series A, F and T of this fund will be reduced effective October 1, 2020.
^3	Instead of merging the terminating fund into the continuing fund, Franklin Templeton may merge the terminating fund into Franklin Mutual Global Discovery Fund II, Franklin Quotential Diversified Income Portfolio II, Franklin U.S. Monthly Income Fund II or Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund II, each a new trust fund with an investment objective and investment strategies that are substantially similar and an identical fee structure as the continuing fund. This action will only be taken if, in Franklin Templeton's judgment, the participation of the continuing fund in a tax-deferred merger would cause unused tax losses to be extinguished within that fund, which would not be in the best interests of investors in the continuing fund. After the merger, these new trust funds will be closed to new investments. This will be included in the information package sent to each investor of these terminating funds.
^4	Series I of this fund will be closed to new investments after the close of business today, August 20, 2020 and terminated on or around November 6, 2020.
^5	Investors in this fund will receive units of the corresponding hedged series of the continuing fund, in order to maintain their currency-hedged exposure to U.S. equities.
^6	This fund is not closed to new investors in advance of the merger.
^7	This fund's merger is not subject to the approval of investors.
^8	This fund is not a class of shares of Franklin Templeton Corporate Class Ltd., and its merger will not be effected by a Plan of Arrangement.
^9	This fund is a new fund with an investment objective and investment strategies that are substantially similar and an identical fee structure as Templeton International Stock Fund. This fund will be closed to new investments after the merger.
^10	This fund's merger will occur on or around November 13, 2020. If the merger is not approved, it will be closed to new investments on or around November 13, 2020.
^11	This fund is a new fund with an investment objective and investment strategies that are substantially similar and an identical fee structure as Templeton Growth Fund, Ltd. Templeton Growth Fund is a new trust fund that will be available for purchase on or around November 13, 2020.
^12	Investors in series A and PA of this fund will receive units of series AG and PAG, respectively, of the continuing fund. These series will be closed to new investments after the merger.

The Independent Review Committee of the funds has reviewed and approved each of these mergers.

Except as noted otherwise, investors in each terminating fund will be asked to approve its merger at special meetings to be held on or around October 30, 2020. In advance of these meetings, documents with full details of the proposed mergers will be available on Franklin Templeton's website. Due to the pandemic, we strongly encourage investors to exercise their right to vote before the proxy deadline as attendance at these in-person meetings will be limited in order to comply with social distancing protocols.

Fund Terminations

Franklin ActiveQuant Canadian Corporate Class and Franklin Bissett Canadian Dividend Corporate Class will be closed to new investments after the close of business today, August 20, 2020 and terminated on or around November 6, 2020. Investors in these funds who would like to continue to access these strategies can switch into Franklin ActiveQuant Canadian Fund and Franklin Bissett Canadian Dividend Fund, respectively.

Investors are encouraged to speak to their financial advisor about these changes. Franklin Templeton's client service team is also available at 1-800-387-0830 or [email protected]. Please visit franklintempleton.ca for more information on Franklin Templeton funds.

About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. (known as Franklin Templeton Canada) is a subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. Franklin Templeton's mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company brings extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, alternatives and custom multi-asset solutions. With offices in over 30 countries and 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has more than 70 years of investment experience and approximately US$1.4 trillion (approximately CA$1.9 trillion) in assets under management as of July 31, 2020. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.ca and connect with Franklin Templeton on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and read the Beyond Bulls & Bears blog.

Copyright © 2020. Franklin Templeton. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.

Media Contact, Sarah Kingdon, Corporate Communications, Franklin Templeton, 416.957.6191, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.franklintempleton.ca