Mutual funds: COVID-19 is revolutionizing distribution

When the pandemic struck, Franklin Templeton Canada shifted 97% of its employees to telework. When interviewed in September 2020, the company’s president and CEO in Canada, Duane Green, told the Insurance Portal that he was in no hurry to get them back to the office. Deciding factors would be how back-to-school and the flu season unfold.

Since the start of the lockdowns, Green said that he has been holding more and more meetings on video conferencing platforms, sometimes in the office, but mostly remotely.

In July, the firm completed the acquisition of Legg Mason, Inc. while working remotely. Green says he has learned several lessons from the current supply chain crisis, including seeing efficiency gains.

Franklin Templeton has also ensured that financial advisors have the same technology tools they used before when they conduct face-to-face meetings. "Financial advisors are critical to what we do. We need to make sure that we provide them meaningful and useful material, tools and resources that add value," Green says.

The same goes for sales teams, and what Green calls relationship managers. They are known as wholesalers in industry jargon. “All of them are now virtual relationship managers," he says. “We want to maintain the relationship with them. We’re doing a lot of webinars, virtual calls, Zoom, Webex and Teams calls, to deliver them content.”

Green does not think the relationship will revert to exactly what it was before COVID-19. "I think even advisors are realizing how efficient their businesses are now, to get on the call with their relationship manager or a portfolio manager, hanging up and then you’re back at your desk. We’ll get back to some of those face-to-face meetings, advisors with their clients or their relationship managers, but I see a lot more use of digital and technology going forward.”

The company has also seen significant efficiency gains in its sales team. "When somebody doesn’t have to drive town to town, office to office, rather they’re sitting in the office doing these calls, how many more contacts can they have in a day? We’re seeing our sales teams’ efficiency going up. The number of client touch points has increased. It’s been a great learning experience for us, on what the future of distribution looks like in Canada. We’ll have more people doing more client outreach than we had pre-COVID,” he points out.