Franklin Templeton Expands and Restructures IO Team

The newest addition to the IO team is Tyler Johnson, who is transferring from Franklin Templeton’s retail sales division to serve as DCIO Key Account Manager. Johnson will work closely with the team’s three existing senior DCIO specialists.

The team also includes a five-member IO sales specialist group, headed by IO Sales Manager Peter Conneely, which serves both the defined contribution (DC) and variable annuity (VA) markets. This group focuses on partnering with record keepers and VA providers, as well as providing value-added support to financial advisers whose practices include a retirement plan component. They provide practice management resources to help advisers add and retain clients.

Supporting these DCIO and IO sales specialist groups will be three IO hybrid specialists, serving primarily as internal sales support.

“We have seen a continuing consolidation of financial advisers who have reshaped their practices to compete effectively with traditional consultants for retirement plan business. And at the same time, there continues to be a large but fragmented financial adviser population that does occasional to moderate business with retirement plans and requires assistance in selling and servicing these plans,” said Franklin Templeton’s Investment-Only Division Head Yaqub Ahmed. “In looking at the future of the investment-only market, we are realigning the structure of our IO sales team to serve the unique needs of each of these divergent groups of advisers and best support their chosen business models.”