Franklin Templeton said Thursday it is reducing the annual expense ratios on three of its ETFs, becoming the latest ETF issuer to make some products more cost-efficient for investors.
The Franklin LibertyQ U.S. Equity ETF (CBOE: FLQL), which is just over two years old, is now charging 0.15% per year, or $15 on a $10,000 investment, down from 0.25%.
FLQL tries to reflect the performance of the LibertyQ U.S. Large Cap Equity Index, which includes the 1,000 largest issuers based on market-cap taken from the Russell 1000 Index using a methodology developed with Franklin Templeton to reflect the money manager’s desired investment strategy.
The Franklin Liberty International Aggregate Bond ETF (Cboe: FLIA), which debuted in June 2018, is now charging 0.25% per year, down from 0.35%. FLIA is an actively managed fund.
The Franklin Liberty International Aggregate Bond ETF will try to generate investment return, consistent with prudent investing, consisting of a combination of interest income and capital appreciation by holding fixed and floating-rate bonds issued by governments, government agencies and governmental-related or corporate issuers located outside the U.S. Bonds may be denominated and issued in the local currency or in another currency.
FLIA’s manager allocates assets based on changing market, political and economic conditions. It considers various factors, such as the evaluation of interest rates, currency exchange rate changes and credit risks. A security may be sold if the security has become fully valued due to either its price appreciation or changes in the issuer’s fundamentals, or when the investment manager believes another security is a more attractive investment opportunity.
“We are constantly evaluating ways to improve client experiences. I’m excited to announce our latest effort – lower pricing on our large cap equity and emerging market smart beta ETFs as well as our international bond active ETF,” said Patrick O’Connor, global head of ETFs for Franklin Templeton, in a statement.
The Franklin LibertyQ Emerging Markets ETF (FLQE) is now charging 0.45% annually, down from 0.55%.
FLQE seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of its corresponding underlying index, LibertyQ Emerging Markets Index. The underlying LibertyQ Emerging Markets Index includes stocks from emerging markets countries that have favorable exposure to four investment style factors–quality, value, momentum and low volatility.
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