New Mutual Fund Taps Local Expertise To Offer Truly Global Perspective
The Franklin World Perspectives Fund empowers local asset managers in countries from Vietnam to Brazil to run their slices of the portfolio and make decisions locally.
Stephen Dover, international chief investment officer for Franklin Templeton’s local asset management group, said that’s a huge change from the usual way global funds are managed, according to this story in InvestmentNews.
“The history of investing globally has normally involved an Anglo person getting on a plane” and traveling to a foreign country to do research, said Dover, who is portfolio manager of the new fund. “But as [the global markets] have developed, the quality of the local money managers has improved as well.”
Tapping the knowledge of local personnel to run an actively managed global fund appears to be a smart way to gain an edge in the increasingly competitive world of global investing. Franklin Templeton began developing local money management offices worldwide 15 years ago, a strategic move that is paying off now.