Franklin Templeton Partners With Vestwell on Adviser Managed Account Platform

The solution allows plan sponsors to rethink their default option by choosing an investment model for each employee, rather than a single target-date series.

Franklin Templeton has partnered with digital recordkeeping platform Vestwell to build an adviser managed account experience.

The new offering combines Franklin Templeton’s proprietary Goals Optimization Engine (GOE) methodology with Vestwell’s recordkeeping infrastructure. The offering will live natively in Vestwell’s platform, with the ability to automatically enroll participants into a personalized investment strategy.

“We believe every U.S. worker and household has the right to experience financial well-being during each life phase. Enabling plan advisers to deliver goals-based, personalized, cost-effective advice to Americans in the workplace is our focus. We want to equip advisers and investors with innovative tools and technology to achieve that goal at scale,” says Yaqub Ahmed, head of U.S. retirement and insurance at Franklin Templeton. “We’re thrilled to be working with Vestwell to deliver a managed account offering that helps advisers more effectively engage during all stages of a participant’s savings journey.”

The managed account solution allows plan sponsors to rethink their default option by choosing an investment model for each employee, rather than a traditional single target-date series. Participants can be defaulted into a target-date series early in their savings journey before being moved into a more active model as they approach, or reach, retirement.

The offering is currently in late-stage development, with an expected rollout in the first half of this year.

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