Products November 9, 2023

Investment Product & Service Launches – 11/9/23

Franklin Templeton converts mutual fund into newly listed ETF; SCG Asset Management offers equity-linked note interval fund; Voyant introduces wellness solution.

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Franklin Templeton Converts Mutual Fund Into Franklin Focused Growth ETF

Franklin Templeton launched an exchange-traded fund, Franklin Focused Growth ETF, on the Chicago Board Options Exchange under the ticker FFOG. The fund aims to provide capital appreciation by investing in growth equity securities.

The ETF was converted from a mutual fund, and it maintains the predecessor Franklin Focused Growth Fund’s investment goal, principal investment strategies, performance benchmark, investment adviser and portfolio management team.

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One difference from the predecessor mutual fund is that FFOG is a non-diversified fund, meaning it will generally invest in fewer issuers than a diversified fund and may be more sensitive to economic, business, political or other changes that affect individual issuers or investments than a diversified fund.

FFOG is managed by Matt Moberg, senior vice president and portfolio manager with Franklin Equity Group, who had managed the predecessor mutual fund since its inception in 2016.

“FFOG offers a large-cap growth strategy, run by a team that focuses its investments in the most innovative sectors of the economy, all within one of the most innovative investment vehicles on the market, the ETF,” Moberg said in a statement.

SCG Asset Management Offers Equity-Linked Note Interval Fund

SCG Asset Management LLC, a provider of derivative-based investment solutions, reintroduced the Alternative Strategies Income Fund, a continuously-offered, closed-end interval fund focused on equity-linked notes.

The actively managed fund invests in a portfolio of notes and seeks to provide high income with consistent quarterly distributions, regardless of market regime. Through its proprietary Selector model, SCG designs a high-income-paying portfolio diversified across timespans, industries and sectors.

The fund also seeks to provide low to moderate volatility and low correlation to the broader markets. With investment minimums as low as $5,000 and no accreditation requirements, the fund can be offered to any investor, including those operating retirement accounts, through an adviser. There are no subscription documents and no Schedule K-1 tax forms.

“The Fund is well-suited for a diversified, income generating alternative asset allocation in an investor-friendly 1940 Act structure that trades at NAV with the efficiency and transparency of a single ticker symbol,” Gregory H. Sachs, founder, CEO and CIO of SCG, said in a statement.

Voyant Introduces ‘Wellness’ for Enterprise Companies

Voyant, a provider of software-as-a-service-based wealth management, wellness and client digital engagement solutions that is owned by AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc., introduced Voyant Wellness, a client-facing platform.

Voyant Wellness is designed for enterprise companies, including banks, private banks and wealth management firms. It offers a variety of customizable, module-based solutions—including standalone calculators, account aggregation, simplified goal planning and the ability to build a personal financial timeline—that are integrated into an organization’s brand identity and internal tools.

“With Voyant Wellness, we are offering the enterprise market a digital-first way to interact with their clients and provide configurable financial tools and services that can be personalized according to business needs,” David Kaufman, CEO of Austin, Texas-based Voyant, said in a statement. “Our goal is to help enterprise companies leverage technology and data to unlock financial success for their clients.”

Voyant Wellness can be accessed from corporate intranets, employer benefit sites or as part of direct-to-consumer digital solutions. In each situation, as consumers engage with the various financial wellness modules, information collected can be used for lead generation, client segmentation and targeted marketing.

Products November 9, 2023

BlackRock’s Fink Marks 30-Years of TDFs

The asset manager’s CEO noted the importance of the TDF in retirement savings and a recent ETF-driven series designed for IRAs. 

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BlackRock Inc. Chairman and CEO Larry Fink took to social media Wednesday to mark 30 years since its first target-date fund was launched.

Larry Fink

Fink championed TDFs’ role in retirement saving, writing that the investment vehicles “have made investing for retirement easier and more accessible for millions of Americans.” The asset manager’s head related BlackRock’s sale and development of TDFs to the firm’s “role in helping more and more people prepare for retirement.”

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BlackRock’s LifePath target-date series was introduced in 1993, according to the firm. Today, 60% of 401(k) plan participants are invested in a TDF, according to the asset manager’s retirement division.

BlackRock is currently the sixth-largest provider of TDFs in the U.S. by assets, with $64 billion, according to Simfund, which, like PLANADVISER, is owned by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. BlackRock saw the second most net inflows into TDFs in Q3, second only to American Funds, which is owned by Capital Group.

The Vanguard Group is the largest TDF provider by assets in the U.S., according to Simfund. The firm marked the 20-year anniversary of its first retirement target-date series in October.

In his post, Fink pointed to BlackRock’s recent release of an exchanged-traded-funds-based TDF series available for individual retirement accounts. The firm positioned the series as a retirement savings vehicle for what it cited as the 57 million Americans who do not have access to a workplace plan, including gig and part-time workers.

Fink pointed to the simplicity of TDFs as part of their success.

“TDFs are a simple way to invest for retirement,” he wrote. “To choose the right one, people have to make just one decision: What year do you want to retire?”

Some in the retirement industry have more recently been calling for personalization in retirement savings that goes beyond TDFs. Options include putting participants into managed accounts and implementing more personalized TDFs that take into account factors beyond age. 

In a related report on the outlook for TDFs, BlackRock noted its Life Path TDF series has evolved to look beyond only age and the appropriate glidepath, but also takes into account income profiles, life expectancy, and risk aversion. In 2013, the firm had incorporated Real Estate Investment Trusts and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, international exposure, and commodities into the series.

BlackRock has also, starting in 2020, been developing a lifetime income option for its TDF strategies. To date, 14 plan sponsors have elected to work with BlackRock to implement its LifePath Paycheck representing more than $27 billion in TDF assets and over 500,000 participants, according to a spokesperson.

Other areas of research for future product offering are including alternative investments and tax optimization to TDFs, which “will allow us to further evolve target date funds to be even more targeted,” according to the spokesperson.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen again and again that people who plan and save for their retirement have more hope and confidence about the future,” Fink wrote. “Far too many Americans are not prepared today.”

Correction: Adjusts description of BlackRock’s lifetime income option.

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