Franklin Templeton files Templeton Emerging Markets Insights ETF at 0.64%
Chetan Sehgal and Andrew Ness, who already run Templeton's emerging-markets equity funds, would manage the proposed ETF. It has no ticker and cannot be sold yet.
Key takeaways
Franklin Templeton ETF Trust filed Wednesday to register the Templeton Emerging Markets Insights ETF, a proposed actively managed emerging-markets stock fund with an annual fee of 0.64%. The ticker and the exchange are blank. The shares may not be sold until the registration statement is effective.
The managers already run these funds
Templeton Asset Management Ltd. would be the investment manager, with Franklin Templeton Investment Management Limited as sub-adviser. The named managers are Chetan Sehgal, director of portfolio management at Templeton Asset Management, and Andrew Ness, a portfolio manager at the sub-adviser.
They already run two Templeton emerging-markets equity funds. The closed-end Templeton Emerging Markets Fund has traded on the New York Stock Exchange since Feb. 26, 1987. Franklin's factsheet as of Sept. 30 lists both men, $372.15 million in net assets and 84 issuers. That day the shares stood at $22.25 against a net asset value of $24.94, a discount of 10.8%.
The other is Templeton Emerging Markets Equity Fund, which Franklin renamed on June 1 from Templeton Developing Markets Trust. Franklin lists Sehgal as a manager since 2017 and Ness since 2020. A Sept. 30 factsheet lists $2.80 billion in net assets. Advisor Class shares list a net expense ratio of 0.99%, against a gross ratio of 1.27%, as of July 13, with no sales charge. The proposed ETF fee is lower than that net figure. Unlike either fund Sehgal and Ness already run, this one would trade as an ETF.
Where 0.64% sits
The fee table shows a 0.64% management fee and a total annual operating expense of 0.64%. The filing lists no fee waiver.
That sits above the large, broad active funds and below concentrated stock-pickers. Avantis's Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF AVEM charges 0.33% and reported $28.3 billion in assets as of Sept. 30. It holds more than 4,000 stocks. Wednesday's filing describes a non-diversified stock-picking fund, a different product. J.P. Morgan's JPMorgan ActiveBuilders Emerging Markets Equity ETF JEMA also charges 0.33%, the figure on its Sept. 30 factsheet.
Closer to the fund in the filing, Matthews Asia's Matthews Emerging Markets Equity Active ETF MEM lists a 0.79% gross expense ratio on its Sept. 30 factsheet and holds 65 stocks. Baron's Baron Emerging Markets Select ETF BCEM holds 81 stocks, and Baron lists total expenses of 0.80% as of April 30.
Active funds built to stay near an emerging-markets index sit between those fees. T. Rowe Price's T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Equity Research ETF TEMR has a 0.40% net expense ratio, the figure the firm set at its March launch. MFS's MFS Blended Research Emerging Markets Equity ETF BREE charges 0.44%, the total in its June 26 summary prospectus. Against that set, 0.64% is above the index-aware funds and below Matthews and Baron.
The proposed 0.64% fee versus funds already trading
What it would own
The stated goal is long-term capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions the fund would invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of companies located or operating in emerging markets. Up to 20% could go into developed-market or frontier-market issuers. It may buy companies of any size, and says it will primarily invest in mid- and large-capitalization stocks.
The prospectus says that in choosing stocks, the investment manager "applies a fundamental, research-driven, long-term approach, focusing on companies with sustainable earnings power that are trading at a discount to intrinsic worth."
The fund would be non-diversified, so it can put more of its assets in fewer issuers than a diversified fund. The prospectus says it may at times have significant investments in China, Taiwan or South Korea, or in information technology and financial services. It names no index the fund would be measured against.
Not the other Insights fund
Franklin already sells an Insights ETF under a different team. Franklin Templeton's Templeton International Insights ETF TINS is an actively managed international stock fund, launched Oct. 21, 2025, that can own developed markets as well as emerging ones. Peter Nori and Heather Abdinoor of Templeton Investment Counsel manage it. Franklin's Sept. 30 factsheet lists a 0.55% expense ratio and $5.71 million in net assets.
The earliest it could take effect
The prospectus is dated Oct. 21. This filing adds one new fund to the trust and asks to take effect 75 days after it was filed. The earliest the registration could take effect is Jan. 4, 2027, unless Franklin amends the filing or sets a later date. That is the earliest date the filing asks for, not a scheduled launch.
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