On August 28, 2025, Franklin Templeton launched the Franklin Multisector Income ETF (MULT), an actively managed fund designed to pursue diversified income and long-term capital appreciation. The fund targets dynamic exposure across global fixed income markets while maintaining what the company calls “a disciplined risk management framework.”
The fund invests opportunistically across a wide range of bond sectors, including corporate credit, government and agency securities, securitized debt, and emerging markets. MULT’s portfolio construction intends to combine rigorous bottom-up security selection with macroeconomic insights, allowing managers to adapt to shifting market conditions. The strategy explicitly embraces the “multisector” approach—rotating among different fixed income sectors as opportunities arise, rather than being constrained to any single area of the bond market.
MULT is managed by the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income group, and the fund is led by senior team members Mike Salm, Patrick Klein, and Albert Chan. Salm, the lead portfolio manager, characterizes the current environment as one “defined by crosscurrents, from policy uncertainty to credit dispersion,” arguing that this justifies a flexible, research-intensive approach to uncover “overlooked sources of income.”
Why might you be interested?
First, the timing and positioning make strategic sense. Fixed income investors today face a complex environment where traditional approaches may prove inadequate. Interest rate uncertainty, credit spread volatility, and geographic diversification needs all point toward the potential value of an actively managed, go-anywhere bond strategy. Franklin Templeton’s decision to launch this fund now suggests they see opportunities in the current market dislocations.
Second, Franklin Templeton brings substantial credibility to fixed income management. The firm manages $1.62 trillion globally with over 75 years of investment experience. Their fixed income operation manages $224 billion and recently acquired the fixed income operations from Putnam Investments. Mr. Salm was formerly Putnam’s fixed-income chief investment officer, and Mr. Chan was their head of portfolio construction. It is, in short, an established player leveraging existing expertise in a new vehicle.
What cautions apply?
However, several concerns warrant attention. MULT just launched, so we don’t know whether the team can actually pull off the “go-anywhere” approach whose success relies entirely on the team’s ability to correctly time sector rotations and security selections across multiple markets. Too, the fund’s ability to invest in below-investment-grade securities, derivatives, and emerging markets introduces credit, liquidity, and currency risks that may not be appropriate for all income-focused investors. The marketing emphasis on “uncovering overlooked sources of income” could signal a willingness to reach for yield in ways that increase portfolio risk, though Franklin is generally a pretty prudent bunch.
The multisector income space is also increasingly crowded, with numerous established competitors offering similar strategies. We’ve highlighted a few of those in another essay in our September 2025 issue.
Finally, as with any new fund, MULT faces the challenges of small asset size, potentially wide bid-ask spreads, and low trading volume until it establishes market presence.
Bottom Line
MULT represents a reasonably priced entry point for investors beginning to explore alternatives to traditional US-focused income strategies. While Franklin Templeton’s fixed income credentials are solid, this fund is best viewed as one option among several for investors reconsidering the geographic and sector concentration of their bond allocations, rather than as a destination strategy in itself.
