Franklin Templeton Collabs with Tech Platform on Personalized Investment Solution

Franklin Templeton is collaborating with California-based vWise Inc. to integrate technology, predictive analytics, behavioral finance insights and a personalized investment solution designed to improve retirement outcomes in defined contribution (DC) plans.

Franklin Templeton’s proprietary Goals Optimization Engine (GOE) methodology, combined with vWise’s Experience Platform, will use real-time participant data to deliver personalized experiences for participants. In addition, Mary Beth Glotzbach, senior institutional DC strategist for Franklin Templeton, has been named to the vWise board. 

“The workplace is the financial hub for many American workers and our collaboration with vWise will enable us to deliver on our commitment to personalization,” says Glotzbach. “We can now bring to DC plan participants the same level of personalized recommendations we’ve all come to expect in other aspects of our lives. That’s especially important for participants approaching retirement, who will benefit from a more customized approach to meet their changing needs.”  

vWise technology allows financial service providers to aggregate data and build participant profiles, apply a customized rules engine that selects the best “call to action” and deliver a personal experience. The recorded behavior and transaction then builds out a more robust profile. The vWise Experience platform is designed to be effective in institutional, adviser-sold and retail financial verticals.

“Our open-platform approach is the key to unlocking more targeted communications and, in turn, more engaged participants,” says David Ferrigno, CEO of vWise. “Aggregating data from multiple sources—our clients, their clients and their partners—allows vWise to deliver personalized communications based on relevant demographic and financial characteristics. Investor ‘calls to action’ can be both simpler to act on and to implement.”

“Our collaboration with vWise will help to operationalize our GOE methodology in the institutional DC market,” says Harshendu Bindal, managing director and head of digital strategy and wealth management for Franklin Templeton. “vWise will work directly with the plan sponsor and recordkeeper to establish data transfer protocols that pull the necessary participant data to create targeted and personalized communications. This collaboration is part of Franklin Templeton’s commitment to advancing personalization and improving DC participant experiences and outcomes.”