Franklin Templeton Canada Takes a Sustainable Investment Approach to Retirement Savings

 First Independent Canadian Asset Manager to Offer Multi-Asset, Target-Date Sustainable Portfolios for Retirement Savers

TORONTO, Jan. 19, 2022 /CNW/ - Franklin Templeton Canada today announced that it will be aligning Franklin LifeSmart® Portfolios with investors' growing desire to integrate ESG factors into the investment process by taking a sustainable investment approach to retirement savings, which will make it the first independent Canadian asset manager to do so for its multi-asset, target-date portfolios. Managed by the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions team in Canada for Canadian investors, these retirement portfolios can be accessed through insurance company and financial institution group savings platforms¹.

"ESG has created a transformational shift in investing. In a recent survey conducted for Franklin Templeton, 68 per cent of Canadians who invest in a Defined Contribution plan say that it's important for them to have ESG-integrated options when making an investment decision²," said Duane Green, president and CEO, Franklin Templeton Canada. "ESG has been ingrained in the investment capabilities of our in-house specialist investment managers for decades, so integrating ESG into our multi-asset, target-date retirement portfolios is a natural evolution."

Michael Greenberg, CFA, SVP and portfolio manager, Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, based in Toronto, added: "For the LifeSmart Sustainable Portfolios, our team will consider ESG criteria at every stage of the investment process, from manager due diligence to portfolio construction and monitoring. Our proprietary ESG research is designed to identify risk and return opportunities driven from corporate practice trends, changing investor preferences and evolving ESG data, in addition to underlying funds that demonstrate strong ESG integration. We are constructing retirement portfolios that not only focus on the risk and return goals of an investor, but also integrate ESG factors into the investment process."  

Effective March 28, 2022, the investment objective and strategies of each Franklin LifeSmart Portfolio will adopt a sustainable investment approach and as a result, "Sustainable" will be added to each portfolio name. The current portfolio lineup offers target retirement dates in five-year increments – from 2025 through 2055 – which will be expanded to include a 2060 portfolio on March 28, 2022.

Concurrent with these changes, Franklin LifeSmart Portfolios' dynamic glidepath will be enhanced to better align with Canadian investors' anticipated retirement savings lifecycles. In the early stages of retirement saving, the allocation to equities will be higher in the portfolios to help provide investors with more opportunity for capital growth. As a Canadian investor approaches 71 years of age – the age when they are required to convert their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) and start making minimum withdrawals – the portfolios will have a more conservative allocation.

About Franklin Templeton
Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. In Canada, the company's subsidiary is Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., which operates as Franklin Templeton Canada. 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, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has 75 years of investment experience and over US$1.5 trillion (over CAN$1.9 trillion) in assets under management as of December 31, 2021. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.ca and connect with Franklin Templeton on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and read the Beyond Bulls & Bears blog.

1. Subject to applicable securities law, the portfolios may also be offered or sold directly to investors. The individuals that advise the portfolios in Canada are part of Fiduciary Trust Company of Canada, the "portfolio advisor" to the portfolios and are also members of the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions team.

2. This is according to an Xcelerant survey where DC-holders were asked how they feel about ESG. The Xcelerant survey was conducted online among a sample of 1,236 Canadian investors 18 years of age or older and was administered between October 28 and November 2, 2021, by Directions Research, which is not affiliated with Franklin Templeton. Data has been statistically weighted by age, gender and geographic region in Canada. The custom-designed weighting program assigns a weighting factor to the data based on current population statistics from Statistics Canada.

Please read the confidential offering memorandum of the portfolios before investing. The offering memorandum contains important information regarding the portfolios' investment objectives, strategies, risks, fees and other matters of interest. There are no assurances that the stated investment objectives of the portfolios will be met. Units of the portfolios are only sold to purchasers that qualify as "accredited investors" in reliance on prospectus exemptions in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. Past performance is not an indicator or a guarantee of future performance.

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Copyright © 2022. Franklin Templeton. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.

Media Contact, Sarah Kingdon, Corporate Communications, Franklin Templeton, 416-957-6191, [email protected]