Franklin Templeton has appointed George Stephan to the newly created position of global chief operating officer of wealth management alternatives.
Reporting to Adam Spector, Franklin Templeton’s executive vice president and head of global distribution, Stephan (pictured) oversees alternative investments product innovation and investor services and assists with business development, management and operations. He will partner with the firm’s distribution leaders around the world to help drive the overall distribution strategy in addition to advisor education for the alternative investments business in the private wealth channel.
Franklin Templeton is now one of the largest managers in alternative assets globally, amounting to approximately 16% ($264bn) of the firm’s $1.65trn in assets under management as of June 30, 2024.
Its specialist investment managers, each with deep domain expertise, provide a diverse range of alternative asset capabilities including private credit and real estate debt from Benefit Street Partners-Alcentra, real estate equity from Clarion Partners, secondary private equity and co-investments from Lexington Partners, hedged strategies from Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions and pre-IPO growth equity investments from Franklin Venture Partners.
“With more than 40 years of experience in alternatives and 382 alternative investment professionals around the world, we have been deliberate about building our capabilities in multiple ways – through acquisitions of specialists like Benefit Street Partners, Lexington and Clarion and by onboarding our offerings to key advisor platforms to make them more accessible to investors,” Spector said. “The result is that Franklin Templeton is one of the few traditional asset managers to build a successful alternatives business spread across a broad range of strategies and geographies.”
Stephan previously spent five years at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), as the head of strategy and business development for the firm’s global client solutions business. Before that, he was chief operating officer and head of investor relations for KKR’s Global Wealth Solutions business in the Americas. Prior to joining KKR, Stephan spent nine years at Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division.
