Deals & People July 17, 2012

Franklin Templeton Expands IO Distribution Team

 

Brian Schweitzer became strategic account manager, Craig Miller was promoted to key account manager, and Tina White was promoted to IO sales desk supervisor.


 

 

Reported by

 As part of the newly created dedicated strategic accounts team in the investments-only (IO) division, Schweitzer will focus on defined contribution (DC) home office platform relationships. He transferred from Franklin Templeton’s consultant relations team and he reports to Yaqub Ahmed, senior vice president and head of the U.S. IO division.
Formerly an IO internal wholesaler, Miller’s focus will be DC platform and broker/dealer relationships. He reports to Schweitzer.

Franklin Templeton has strengthened its resources to support internal sales with the addition of three internal sales staffers, and White’s supervisory promotion. White will oversee IO internal sales for DC as well as variable annuities (VA). She reports to Peter Conneely, sales manager/key account manager for the IO division.

Conneely oversees an additional IO sales team of six focused on VA providers as well as providing DC value-added support to financial advisers. Conneely reports to Ahmed.

Franklin Templeton has also expanded its team of senior DCIO specialists, which serves intermediaries who have a deep focus on the retirement plan space and strategic DC providers. An additional four staff members in the Central and Southern regions of the country bring the total to seven senior DCIO specialists. The company has realigned territories to allow for enhanced client coverage and internal partnerships with other U.S. sales channels.

 

Data & Research July 17, 2012

White Paper Examines Use of Frontier Market Asset Class

Arnerich Massena Inc. released “Seeking the Investment Frontier,” a white paper examining the pros and cons of the frontier market asset class.
Reported by

According to Tony Arnerich, chief executive and chief investment officer of Arnerich Massena, frontier markets are individual nations that have a stock market, but are at an earlier stage of economic development than emerging markets. “While developed countries struggle with overleveraged debt and declines in consumer spending, nations on the frontier of economic development offer a fresh slate for growth potential,” Arnerich said.

Home to 1.2 billion people, frontier markets share some features. Urbanization is just beginning in many frontier countries, leading to the development of a private sector and growth in middle-class consumers. Frontier nations tend to have younger populations than developed countries, meaning the labor force is growing, along with domestic demand for goods and services. Economic growth expectations for a number of frontier market countries are impressive, while at the same time, they may be more vulnerable to corruption and political and economic crises.     

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“Participation in the opportunities of frontier markets comes with some inherent risk, namely volatility and liquidity constraints,” Arnerich said, “and while we are well aware of the heightened risk, we believe that macroeconomic trends are favorable to this universe, and micro-trends in some of these areas offer potential rapid growth.”   

Several factors make frontier markets interesting for investors: 

  • The low valuations and high-dividend yields of frontier markets are attractive; 
  • Many frontier markets are rich in raw materials and energy resources that are still largely untapped, yet will be in high demand to meet the developing world’s economic expansion; and 
  • Whereas globalization and macroeconomic shifts in the developed world have made it more difficult to achieve portfolio diversification, frontier markets, influenced by local and regional economics, are an opportunity to more deeply diversify a portfolio.   

 “Seeking the Investment Frontier” can be downloaded here.

 

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