Franklin Templeton's George Stephan - bringing public and private together
Episode
51 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Personal Finance, Relationships
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Wealth Distribution Model: Successful private markets distribution requires five pillars: relationships across home office and advisors, institutional-quality product innovation, local technical experts including portfolio managers, education meeting advisors at their journey stage, and differentiated client service driving repeat purchases beyond initial relationships.
- ✓Advisor Contact Structure: Franklin assigns five dedicated contacts per advisor rolled into one email group: relationship manager, internal support, alternative specialist, alternative internal support, and investor relations. This white glove service model requires significant scale but creates competitive differentiation through comprehensive operational support and immediate access to expertise.
- ✓Partnership vs Acquisition Strategy: Traditional asset managers face reset valuations making acquisitions difficult, driving partnership structures instead. Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally, creating marriage-like vested interest on both sides.
- ✓Market Cycle Investment Thesis: Evergreen structures should be held five to eight years through complete market cycles to realize benefits. During March volatility, private markets allocations remained flat or positive while public markets declined, demonstrating diversification value even before full cycle completion, particularly relevant for target date funds and managed accounts.
What It Covers
George Stephan, COO of Global Wealth Management Alternatives at Franklin Templeton, explains how traditional asset managers build private markets capabilities for wealth advisors, leveraging $264 billion in alternative assets across Lexington Partners, Benefit Street Partners, and Clarion Partners.
Key Questions Answered
- •Wealth Distribution Model: Successful private markets distribution requires five pillars: relationships across home office and advisors, institutional-quality product innovation, local technical experts including portfolio managers, education meeting advisors at their journey stage, and differentiated client service driving repeat purchases beyond initial relationships.
- •Advisor Contact Structure: Franklin assigns five dedicated contacts per advisor rolled into one email group: relationship manager, internal support, alternative specialist, alternative internal support, and investor relations. This white glove service model requires significant scale but creates competitive differentiation through comprehensive operational support and immediate access to expertise.
- •Partnership vs Acquisition Strategy: Traditional asset managers face reset valuations making acquisitions difficult, driving partnership structures instead. Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally, creating marriage-like vested interest on both sides.
- •Market Cycle Investment Thesis: Evergreen structures should be held five to eight years through complete market cycles to realize benefits. During March volatility, private markets allocations remained flat or positive while public markets declined, demonstrating diversification value even before full cycle completion, particularly relevant for target date funds and managed accounts.
Notable Moment
Stephan reveals Franklin Templeton has touched every financial advisor in the US at some point, providing existing relationships and operational infrastructure that alternative managers must build from scratch, requiring only technical private markets expertise to activate a $1.6 trillion platform for alternatives distribution.
Episode Transcript
This episode of the Altco's Mainstream podcast is brought to you by Ultimus, a leading full service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As private markets continue to move into the mainstream, the industry requires infrastructure solutions that help funds and investors keep pace. Ultimus is a leading full service fund administrator for asset managers in both private and public markets, offering a wide range of capabilities across registered funds, private funds, and public plans, as well as outsourced middle office services. Delivering operational excellence, Ultimus helps firms manage the ever changing regulatory environment while meeting the needs of their institutional and retail investors. Ultimus provides comprehensive operational support and fund governance services to help managers successfully launch retail alternative products. Trusted by institutions, investment consultants, registered investment advisors, state governments, and fund managers, Ultimus provides solutions for nearly every investment structure in the marketplace. Visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com to learn more about Ultimus' technology enhanced services and solutions, or contact Ultimus executive vice president of business development, Gary Harris, on email at gharris@ultimusfundsolutions.com. We thank Ultimus for their support of Alts going mainstream. Everybody gets a piece. We're going mainstream. Everybody's gonna Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. Today's episode brings the perspective of an asset management veteran who has sat on both sides of the table. We sat down in Franklin Templeton's New York City office with George Stephan, COO of Global Wealth Management Alternatives at Franklin Templeton. George joined Franklin Templeton to continue the build out of the firm's alternatives capabilities, which boasts over 264,000,000,000 in AUM in private market strategies that include Lexington Partners, Benefit Street Partners, and Clarion Partners. Partners. George came from KKR, where he was head of strategy and business development for the firm's global client solutions business and was also COO and head of investor relations for KKR's global wealth solutions business in The Americas. Prior to KKR, George spent nine years in Morgan Stanley's wealth management division. George and I had a fascinating conversation about how to build a wealth solutions business and how advisors approach private markets. We discussed how the adoption of private markets by The Wealth Channel has evolved over the course of Georgia's career, the benefits and challenges of being a traditional asset manager building out its private markets capabilities, the breadth and depth of Franklin Templeton's reach as a firm, and how that brand and history have helped Franklin partner with The Wealth Channel in private markets, how Franklin Templeton's family of specialists has enabled the firm to leverage the expertise of specialist alternative asset managers within a larger platform, how The Wealth Channel approaches private markets, how model portfolios will be constructed and adopted by the wealth channel, and whether or not evergreen funds will be a structure of choice for most advisors. Thanks, George, for coming on the show to share your expertise and wisdom at the intersection of private markets and private wealth. George, welcome to the AllCo's Mainstream …
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“George Stephan, COO of Global Wealth Management Alternatives at Franklin Templeton, explains how traditional asset managers build private markets capabilities for wealth advisors, leveraging $264 billion in alternative assets across Lexington Partners, Benefit Street Partners, and Clarion Partners.”
“Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally.”
“Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally.”
“George Stephan, COO of Global Wealth Management Alternatives at Franklin Templeton, explains how traditional asset managers build private markets capabilities for wealth advisors, leveraging $264 billion in alternative assets across Lexington Partners, Benefit Street Partners, and Clarion Partners.”
“Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally.”
“George Stephan, COO of Global Wealth Management Alternatives at Franklin Templeton, explains how traditional asset managers build private markets capabilities for wealth advisors, leveraging $264 billion in alternative assets across Lexington Partners, Benefit Street Partners, and Clarion Partners.”
“💼 SPONSORS [Ultimus]”
“Franklin's infrastructure partnership with Fremantle, DigitalBridge, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and Actus demonstrates alignment-focused collaboration where investment responsibility and client accountability are shared equally.”
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