Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. of Toronto has launched three ETFs. Two of these ETFs are “smart beta” funds managed by Dina Ting, vice president, Franklin LibertyShares ETFs, and senior portfolio manager with Franklin Resources Inc. in San Mateo, Calif. Franklin LibertyQT Global Dividend Index ETF is meant to replicate the performance of the LibertyQ global dividend index; and Franklin LibertyQT Emerging Markets Index ETF is designed to replicate the LibertyQ emerging markets index and is meant to provide investors with a higher risk-adjusted performance than that of the MSCI emerging-markets index. The third fund, Franklin Liberty Core Balanced ETF, is actively managed and invests directly in North American equities and fixed-income securities. The equities portion of the fund is selected based on a proprietary, rule-based model that uses historical and projected financial stock market data with the goal of identifying companies with attractive levels of quality, value, low volatility and momentum; the fixed-income portion of the fund invests in a variety of debt securities, including fixed-income and floating-rate securities, government and corporate bonds, and bonds backed by mortgages.
(fcollie@investmentexecutive.com).