Lastly, FLAX tries to reflect the performance of the FTSE Asia ex Japan Capped Index, a market-capitalization weighted index representing the performance of large– and mid– capitalization stocks from developed and emerging Asian countries, excluding Japan.
“We think it is very important as the mass customization of the industry grows with the solutions of this type of business, ETFs will be an important part of that,” Jenny Johnson, President and COO of Franklin Resources at Franklin Templeton, said at the Inside ETFs 2018 conference.
Through its Franklin Templeton LibertyShares ETF platform, the money manager now offers a range of actively managed equity and fixed-income ETFs, a smart beta line covering both U.S. and international equity, and a passive suite of country- and region-specific ETFs.
“What we’re really excited about is our single-country and regional funds,” O’Connor said at the conference. Franklin Templeton just launched a massive suite of products “covering all kinds from emerging to developed… Not only are they precise exposure, the liquidity is excellent, but it is in an affordable regional price.”
The new lineup of country and region ETFs may help provide investors with more options to look into overseas exposure as many still remain overly attached to U.S. markets, which may lead to potential diversification problems.
“The acknowledgement of more than just domestic U.S. stocks in their portfolio,” David Mann, SVP and Head of Capital Markets for Global ETFs at Franklin Templeton, said at the conference, adding that the cheap country and region ETFs “give advisors the tools to build a nice, blended portfolio.”
For more information on new fund products, visit our new ETFs category.