Business Continuity

Business Continuity Planning Information Notice

At Franklin Templeton, we recognize how heavily our clients rely on our services. We also recognize that the unexpected can and does occur, from simple outages to major incidents affecting multiple sites. We have successfully supported critical business activities during disruptions of normal business processes from both natural and man-made disasters, including hurricanes, fires, Super Storm Sandy to September 11th and other events. We want you to know that we have plans in place to help safeguard your assets and protect vital account information in the event of a business disruption.

Franklin Templeton and its affiliated companies, including Fiduciary Trust Company International Franklin/Templeton Distributors, Inc., Templeton/Franklin Investment Services, Inc., and Franklin Templeton Financial Services Corp., (“Franklin Templeton”) have Crisis Management, Business Continuity and technology Disaster Recovery plans in place. In addition, Franklin Templeton Investments has dedicated business continuity planners on staff to assist in preparing and testing of plans.

Franklin Templeton Contingency Planning Guidelines

Franklin Templeton plans are developed around specific corporate-wide guidelines. As such, has developed plans that include the ability to recover from various situations including but not limited to unplanned evacuations, power outages, fire, severe weather, intentional acts, and facilities failures that may cause interruptions to our business. Our plans are constructed to recover critical functions according to their time criticality. In order to maintain secure and effective plans, does not provide the specific details in this notice, but you should be aware that corporate disaster recovery planning includes the following:

• Identification and recovery of mission critical systems to include telecommunications.
• Replication, backup and recovery for critical information.
• Alternate & redundant communications between Franklin Templeton and its customers.
• Alternate communications with and alternate locations for employees.
• Regulatory reporting and communications with regulators.
• Review of financial and operational risks.

Franklin Templeton Contingency Planning and Business Recovery

Franklin Templeton actively identifies and seeks to mitigate risks to reduce potential issues and their impact. In the event of an outage or other site specific problems, Franklin Templeton has plans in place to support recovery of its critical business systems and functions. In addition to the guidelines stated above, Franklin Templeton’s recovery plans also include the following:

• Designated Contingency Sites and Seamless Client Contact — There are pre-established and tested processes for rerouting of critical telephone and computer systems. Customers should experience minimal downtime in their ability to contact Franklin Templeton. Within a minimal period of time, customers would be able to re-attempt contact via published toll free telephone numbers, or the web site.
• Access to Your Funds — An outage affecting a given site should not impact your ability to access your funds, as business continuity plans are designed to help ensure sustained service. However, factors outside Franklin Templeton’s control, such as the market closure which occurred following the September 11th tragedy, may impact our ability to service our customers.

Please note that Franklin Business Continuity Plans which are critical to our operations are reviewed, updated and tested annually, to ensure they account for technology, business and regulatory changes. The plans are subject to change, and material changes to our approach will be reflected in an updated “Business Continuity Planning Information Notice” that will be posted on our website at franklintempleton.com.