SUMMARY PROSPECTUS | |||||||
FRANKLIN TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E | |||||||
Franklin Strategic Series | |||||||
January 1, 2024 | |||||||
TICKER: FQTEX
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus, statement of additional information, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund online at www.franklintempleton.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236 or by sending an e-mail request to prospectus@franklintempleton.com. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, both dated January 1, 2024, as may be supplemented, are all incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
Investment Goal
To seek to maximize income while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
The table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
|
|
|
Management fees1 |
| None |
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees |
| None |
Other expenses2 |
| 0.29% |
Acquired fund fees and expenses |
| 0.01% |
Total annual Fund operating expenses3 |
| 0.30% |
Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement4 |
| -0.30% |
Total annual Fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement |
| 0.00% |
1. The investment manager does not charge the Fund a fee for its investment management services. The Fund is part of a wrap fee program or other program advised or sub-advised by the investment manager or its affiliates, clients of which often pay a single aggregate fee to the program sponsor for all costs and expenses of the program (including investment management and custody fees). You are strongly encouraged to read carefully the wrap fee brochure or other disclosures provided to you in connection with the program account.
2. Other expenses have been restated to reflect fees and expenses for the current fiscal year. Consequently, the total annual Fund operating expenses differ from the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights.
3. Total annual Fund operating expenses differ from the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights, which reflect the operating expenses of the Fund and do not include acquired fund fees and expenses.
4. The investment manager has agreed to waive fees and/or reimburse operating expenses (excluding certain non-routine expenses or costs, such as those relating to litigation, indemnification, reorganizations and liquidations) for the Fund so that the ratio of total annual fund operating expenses will not exceed 0.00% until December 31, 2024. During the term, the fee waiver and expense reimbursement agreement may not be terminated or amended without approval of the board of trustees except to add series or classes, to reflect the extension of the termination date or to lower the waiver and expense limitation.
Example
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of the period. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. The Example reflects adjustments made to the Fund's operating expenses due to the fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements by management for the 1 Year numbers only. The Example does not include the fees and expenses (including investment management fees) paid in the wrap programs or certain other programs advised or sub-advised by the investment manager or its affiliates.
2 | Summary Prospectus | franklintempleton.com |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
|
|
| 1 Year |
| 3 Years |
| 5 Years |
| 10 Years |
Franklin Templeton SMACS: Series E |
| $0 |
| $66 |
| $138 |
| $351 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual Fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 123.80% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests predominantly in equity securities, which consist primarily of common stocks. The Fund may invest in securities from any capitalization range, primarily large cap securities. The Fund may also invest in securities that are convertible into common stock. The Fund may also invest up to 25% of its assets in foreign securities, either directly or through depositary receipts.
The Fund is a “non-diversified” fund, which means that it generally invests a greater proportion of its assets in the securities of one or more issuers and invests overall in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. The Fund maintains the flexibility to invest in securities of companies from a variety of sectors, but from time to time, based on economic conditions, the Fund may have significant investments in particular sectors.
The Fund regularly uses a variety of equity-related derivatives and complex equity securities, which may include purchasing or selling call and put options on equity securities and equity security indices, futures on equity securities and equity indexes, options on equity index futures and equity-linked notes, for various purposes including enhancing Fund returns, increasing liquidity, gaining exposure to particular instruments in more efficient or less expensive ways and/or hedging risks relating to changes in certain equity markets. The use of such derivative transactions may allow the Fund to obtain net long (i.e., the Fund would benefit if the price of the investment increases) or net short exposures (i.e., the Fund would benefit if the price of the investment decreases) to selected markets or countries.
franklintempleton.com | Summary Prospectus | 3 |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
The Fund seeks income by selecting stocks with dividend yields the investment manager believes are attractive. The Fund’s investment manager searches for undervalued or out-of-favor securities it believes offer opportunities for income today and significant growth tomorrow. In analyzing securities, the investment manager considers a variety of factors, including:
· a security’s relative value based on such factors as anticipated cash flow, interest or dividend coverage, asset coverage, and earnings prospects;
· the experience and strength of the company’s management;
· the company’s changing financial condition and market recognition of the change;
· the company’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates and business conditions; and
· the company’s debt maturity schedules and borrowing requirements.
· When choosing investments for the Fund, the investment manager applies a “bottom-up,” value oriented, long-term approach, focusing on the market price of a company’s securities relative to the investment manager’s evaluation of the company’s long-term earnings, asset value and cash flow potential. The investment manager also considers a company’s price/earnings ratio, profit margins and liquidation value.
Principal Risks
You could lose money by investing in the Fund. Mutual fund shares are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, or any other agency of the U.S. government.
Market: The market values of securities or other investments owned by the Fund will go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. The market value of a security or other investment may be reduced by market activity or other results of supply and demand unrelated to the issuer. This is a basic risk associated with all investments. When there are more sellers than buyers, prices tend to fall. Likewise, when there are more buyers than sellers, prices tend to rise.
The global outbreak of the novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19 and its subsequent variants, has resulted in market closures and dislocations, extreme volatility, liquidity constraints and increased trading costs. The long-term impact on economies, markets, industries and individual issuers is not known. Some sectors of the economy and individual issuers have experienced or may experience particularly large losses. Periods of extreme volatility in the financial markets;
4 | Summary Prospectus | franklintempleton.com |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
reduced liquidity of many instruments; and disruptions to supply chains, consumer demand and employee availability, may continue for some time.
Stock prices tend to go up and down more dramatically than those of debt securities. A slower-growth or recessionary economic environment could have an adverse effect on the prices of the various stocks held by the Fund.
Income: The Fund’s distributions to shareholders may decline when prevailing interest rates fall or when dividend income from investments in stocks decline.
Value Style Investing: A value stock may not increase in price as anticipated by the investment manager if other investors fail to recognize the company's value and bid up the price, the markets favor faster-growing companies, or the factors that the investment manager believes will increase the price of the security do not occur or do not have the anticipated effect.
Equity-Linked Notes (ELNs): ELNs may not perform as expected and could cause the Fund to realize significant losses including its entire principal investment. Other risks include counterparty risk, liquidity risk and imperfect correlation between ELNs and the underlying securities.
Convertible Securities: Convertible securities are subject to the risks of stocks when the underlying stock price is high relative to the conversion price (because more of the security's value resides in the conversion feature) and debt securities when the underlying stock price is low relative to the conversion price (because the conversion feature is less valuable). A convertible security is not as sensitive to interest rate changes as a similar non-convertible debt security, and generally has less potential for gain or loss than the underlying stock.
Focus: To the extent that the Fund focuses on particular countries, regions, industries, sectors or types of investments from time to time, the Fund may be subject to greater risks of adverse developments in such areas of focus than a fund that invests in a wider variety of countries, regions, industries, sectors or investments.
Management: The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed investment portfolio. The Fund's investment manager applies investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there can be no guarantee that these decisions will produce the desired results.
Foreign Securities (non-U.S.): Investing in foreign securities typically involves more risks than investing in U.S. securities, including risks related to currency exchange rates and policies, country or government specific issues, less favorable trading practices or regulation and greater price volatility. Certain of these risks also may apply to securities of U.S. companies with significant foreign operations. The
franklintempleton.com | Summary Prospectus | 5 |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
risks of investing in foreign securities are typically greater in less developed or emerging market countries.
Non-Diversification: Because the Fund is non-diversified, it may be more sensitive to economic, business, political or other changes affecting individual issuers or investments than a diversified fund, which may negatively impact the Fund's performance and result in greater fluctuation in the value of the Fund’s shares.
Depositary Receipts: Depositary receipts are subject to many of the risks of the underlying security. For some depositary receipts, the custodian or similar financial institution that holds the issuer's shares in a trust account is located in the issuer's home country. The Fund could be exposed to the credit risk of the custodian or financial institution, and in cases where the issuer’s home country does not have developed financial markets, greater market risk. In addition, the depository institution may not have physical custody of the underlying securities at all times and may charge fees for various services, including forwarding dividends and interest and corporate actions. The Fund would be expected to pay a share of the additional fees, which it would not pay if investing directly in the foreign securities. The Fund may experience delays in receiving its dividend and interest payments or exercising rights as a shareholder. There may be an increased possibility of untimely responses to certain corporate actions of the issuer in an unsponsored depositary receipt program. Accordingly, there may be less information available regarding issuers of securities underlying unsponsored programs and there may not be a correlation between this information and the market value of the depositary receipts.
Derivative Instruments: The performance of derivative instruments depends largely on the performance of an underlying instrument, such as a currency, security, interest rate or index, and such instruments often have risks similar to their underlying instrument, in addition to other risks. Derivative instruments involve costs and can create economic leverage in the Fund's portfolio which may result in significant volatility and cause the Fund to participate in losses (as well as gains) in an amount that exceeds the Fund's initial investment. Other risks include illiquidity, mispricing or improper valuation of the derivative instrument, and imperfect correlation between the value of the derivative and the underlying instrument so that the Fund may not realize the intended benefits. When a derivative is used for hedging, the change in value of the derivative may also not correlate specifically with the currency, security, interest rate, index or other risk being hedged. With over-the-counter derivatives, there is the risk that the other party to the transaction will fail to perform.
6 | Summary Prospectus | franklintempleton.com |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity incidents, both intentional and unintentional, may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, Fund or customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, cause the Fund, the investment manager, and/or their service providers (including, but not limited to, Fund accountants, custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality or prevent Fund investors from purchasing, redeeming or exchanging shares or receiving distributions. The investment manager has limited ability to prevent or mitigate cybersecurity incidents affecting third party service providers, and such third party service providers may have limited indemnification obligations to the Fund or the investment manager. Cybersecurity incidents may result in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders, and substantial costs may be incurred in an effort to prevent or mitigate future cybersecurity incidents. Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value of these securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents.
Because technology is frequently changing, new ways to carry out cyber attacks are always developing. Therefore, there is a chance that some risks have not been identified or prepared for, or that an attack may not be detected, which puts limitations on the Fund's ability to plan for or respond to a cyber attack. Like other funds and business enterprises, the Fund, the investment manager, and their service providers are subject to the risk of cyber incidents occurring from time to time.
Performance
The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows changes in the Fund's performance from year to year. The table shows how the Fund's average annual returns for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or since inception, as applicable. The Fund's past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. You can obtain updated performance information at franklintempleton.com or by calling (800) DIAL BEN/342-5236.
Performance information does not include the fees and expenses (including investment management fees) paid in the wrap programs or certain other programs advised or sub-advised by the investment manager or its affiliates.
franklintempleton.com | Summary Prospectus | 7 |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
Annual Total Returns
Best Quarter: | 2020, Q2 | 15.17% |
Worst Quarter: | 2020, Q1 | -23.18% |
As of September 30, 2023, the Fund’s year-to-date return was 3.49%. |
Average Annual Total Returns
For periods ended December 31, 2022
|
| 1 Year |
| Since Inception |
| |
Franklin Templeton SMACS: Series E |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Return before taxes |
| -0.92% |
| 11.87% | 1 |
| Return after taxes on distributions |
| -3.29% |
| 9.36% | 1 |
| Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares |
| 0.08% |
| 8.61% | 1 |
MSCI USA High Dividend Yield Index (index reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
| -3.75% |
| 9.25% | 1 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. | Since inception June 3, 2019. |
Investment Manager
Franklin Advisers, Inc. (Advisers or investment manager)
8 | Summary Prospectus | franklintempleton.com |
FRANKLIN
TEMPLETON SMACS: SERIES E
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS
Portfolio Managers
Edward D. Perks, CFA
President and Director of Advisers and
portfolio manager of the Fund since inception (2019).
Brendan Circle, CFA
Senior Vice President
of Advisers and portfolio manager of the Fund since inception (2019).
Todd Brighton, CFA
Senior
Vice President of Advisers and portfolio manager of the Fund since inception (2019).
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
Shares of the Fund are used exclusively for separately managed accounts advised or sub-advised by Advisers or its affiliates and decisions as to whether to purchase or redeem shares of the Fund for a separately managed account will be made by the investment manager of the separately managed account. Shares of the Fund may be redeemed on any business day that the New York Stock Exchange is open. In addition, shares will be redeemed when you terminate your managed account. There is no minimum investment for purchases.
Taxes
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case your distributions would generally be taxed when withdrawn from the tax-advantaged account.
franklintempleton.com | Summary Prospectus | 9 |
Franklin Distributors, LLC One Franklin Parkway San Mateo, CA 94403-1906 franklintempleton.com Franklin Templeton SMACS: Series E | |
Investment Company Act file #811-06243 © 2024 Franklin Templeton. All rights reserved.
| 3001 PSUM 01/24 |