Franklin Templeton has launched an actively managed core enhanced equity index fund range for UK investors, covering UK, Europe ex UK, US and global equity ranges.
Officially launched on 10 April, the range will consist of the FTF Franklin Core UK Equity Enhanced Index, FTF Franklin Core Europe ex UK Equity Enhanced Index, FTF Franklin Core US Equity Enhanced Index and the FTF Franklin Core Global Equity Enhanced Index funds.
The new strategies will be managed by Brett E. Risser, head of quantitative equity portfolio management, Jacqueline Hurley Kenney, head of solutions research and Adrian Chan, head of quantitative investments.
This range is designed to stay close to the benchmark but seek incremental outperformance by combining manager conviction with factor-based investing.
See also: Enhanced passive funds break the mould
Lisa Wang, head of EMEA investment strategy at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, said: “The challenge we set ourselves was to utilise our active managers’ proven skills by transforming their qualitative insights into a systematic factor.
“By extracting this ‘conviction’ factor from managers’ research-intensive stock selection, we can add a valuable extra layer of investment insight to an underlying process that remains systematic.”
This should increase the diversification within the portfolios, with the funds generally targeting a tracking error of around 1.25%.
Harry Reeves, Franklin Templeton’s head of UK wholesale, said: “The strategies are designed to complement both traditional index and active approaches.”
He added: “By embedding conviction within a quantitative framework, they can offer a cost-efficient alternative to full active management while retaining a disciplined approach to risk and diversification.”
See also: Invesco launches US Enhanced Index fund
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