Franklin Templeton Investments on Tuesday announced the launch of Tapestry, a family of 11 pooled portfolios designed for high net worth investors.

Each portfolio, made up of funds from Franklin Templeton Investments, offers a blend of investment styles and asset classes, including alternative investments, such as hedge funds.

In a statement, the company said Tapestry portfolios which are managed by Franklin Templeton Investments Private Client Group at two different levels. In the overall asset mix of each portfolio, they have the discretion to adjust asset class weighting as much as 5% from its benchmark.

As well, within each individual asset class, the manager has the flexibility to change fund selection and weighting as much as necessary, up to 100%.

“Tapestry’s active management gives the portfolios the flexibility to adjust the mix of asset class, geographical make up, market capitalization and investment styles, to address changing markets,” said Don Reed, president and CEO, Franklin Templeton Investments.

The 11 portfolios can draw on the entire family of mutual funds offered by Franklin Templeton Investments, including Bissett Funds, Franklin Funds, Templeton Funds and Mutual Series Funds.

Tapestry is one of the first pooled portfolios of its kind to include alternative investment funds as part of its asset mix. Fifteen per cent of any one portfolio’s assets can be invested in alternative investment funds.

The portfolios take a unique approach to the alternative investment asset class, investing in forward contracts tied to the performance of “fund-of-fund” multi-strategy alternative investment funds.

“Multi-strategy fund-of-fund alternative investment products may offer less risk than stand alone hedge funds,” said Bill Dickie, president, Franklin Templeton Investments Private Client Group.