YouSaid · the spoken record

Ed Perks

lines on the record: 63
first: 2026-03-06
most recent: 2026-03-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Oh, it's such a good question. I mean, a lot of ways, you know, you almost wouldn't want things to be entirely different. I was fortunate in that. I found that role relatively early on that really solidified the kind of investor I think I am. What is that inherent DNA that I have as an investor? So I think the sooner you can kind of tap into that and then explore ways to follow your investing based upon that. Don't try to be somebody that you're not. And I have colleagues that manage pure growth funds that follow momentum strategies. And I think they do a phenomenal job. I also very much know that's not a job that I would have ever excelled at.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, or having a definitive, I need to find the job in this. And I just reflect on my own path that It evolves quickly. Get in a seat somewhere in an industry that you think is interesting and see where it takes you. And don't be afraid to put your hand up when opportunities arise. You have plenty of time. You have nothing but time.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A way, it would be just that. I see far too many college students, recent grads that think they've already decided what they want to special.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Haven't started Landman 2 yet, but that's probably next. You know, I really kind of like to, and maybe there is a sci-fi element growing up. My sci-fi choice was probably something like Stargate SG1 or something where you can really detach. And I think that's an important component, let the mind rest and be transported a little bit.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think this is around 50 pages. No kidding. It's the greatest sentence ever written, and I haven't gone through it yet, but I've heard him speak about it, and it's just very inspiring. And like I said, it's something that the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence with America 250 is maybe something that we should all step back and make sure we read this year.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something that plays out over 72 or so hours and just something like that that really can let your mind kind of go and the imagination take hold is always something that I've enjoyed too. I did just pick up a new copy. I think it's”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wow, I'll start with maybe what I'm reading right now, and this is something I've always enjoyed history and geography. The end of last year, I picked up a place called Yellowstone because I was planning a siblings trip to Yellowstone. And it was just really fascinating the history I'm now reading undaunted courage by Samuel Ambrose, which is more of the Lewis and Clark expedition. So maybe this summer I'll be out in Glacier or in the Bitterroot Mountains on a trail somewhere. But I really enjoy reading, so I'm more of a nonfiction kind of guy. Occasionally I'll pick up something else, probably my favorite of all time is the Hemingway Classic for whom the Bell Tolls, where you're reading”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, we wrote a letter. And that was something I don't recall having the phone number, but we did write a letter and really kind of laid it out and tried to help her understand just the dynamic. But to me, that really resonated that, wow, this is so important to him. This is really, we need to stay connected to just the role we are playing in individuals' lives. And I think that's something that I've really tried to not only carry on in my career, but certainly instill in the broader team that helps manage Franklin income.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, one of the first things that Charlie asked me to do in 2002 was a difficult time. Interest rates were coming down. There was a modest dividend cut for Franklin Income Fund, which is not a very common occurrence, certainly not something that we enjoy doing. And getting a handwritten letter from an investor, a woman in Tennessee that was a little concerned that her dividend check had gone down. And here he is the chairman and CEO of Franklin and portfolio manager still. And he gave me that handwritten note from the investor and asked me to respond directly to that. Did you write a letter?”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'd certainly first and foremost on that list is Charles Johnson joining Charlie in 2002 as a member of the Franklin Income Portfolio Management Team and really being able to understand his approach to investing and hearing the tremendous experiences that he had over time. But I think more importantly, him really enabling me to become a bit of the investor that I am today. as we went through that transition and then went through difficult times, particularly the financial crisis, that awareness that, look, we're not going to get every situation right. We're not going to make every perfect investment, but really how you handle it and how you stay focused on the people that have entrusted their money to us is just paramount importance.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be coming in markets. For us, that means we can stay invested. We can focus on areas that deliver attractive income and really maintaining that nimbleness in the portfolio and the strategy that we have.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think we're going to keep coming back to right now. We really feel like policy is paramount. So really focusing on where policy will ultimately take the market, midterm elections are going to continue to be a very significant overhang in markets. Maybe one of the things that concerns me that investors are not talking about is if we were to think about the level of uncertainty that some of these dynamics naturally create and how that right now really does not translate to the kind of expected volatility that might be there in markets. So just looking this morning at something like the VIX index, which a lot of investors will go to when they want to see implied volatility, back to the levels it was at in February of 2025. So we did see a very low, right? Low, low. And that tends to be a point where we want to be a little bit more cautious when naturally there's not a lot of volatility.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. And that really led to some of that reallocation. A lot of the outperformance of non-US equity markets in 25 did happen during that period of time. So if you were to take a look at more of the second half, a little bit more balance between the markets”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At some level, we do think it was primed for a little bit of a reallocation towards non US markets. And then you add on some of the policy dynamics around tariffs. And the dollar.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I certainly think that made a great storyline for 2025. Reason being, you know, if we go back and look at 23 and 24, though, U.S. stocks had outperformed so massively.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we do think there is some interesting value in parts of the equity market. And maybe they are companies that have been a little bit out of the spotlight. We do have a pretty good amount of sector diversification, so we're finding opportunities in these different areas. It'll be healthcare. It'll be industrials, energy, utilities. Even in materials, some of these trends, let's take globalization and really this move that is still evolving into maybe hemisphere controls and nearshoring of supply chains, some things that came out of the pandemic. All of that has pretty significant implications. So finding companies that have that a play on a select theme that you want, that you identify and want to play. We think there's a lot of that opportunity in the equity market.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's a group that you want to consider. I think back to just the profile we've had in equity markets, the dominance of mostly non-dividend paying stocks, the megacab tech companies in particular, and not to say that they can't continue to be decent investments, but there is that whole cohort that still focuses on dividends, not just dividends, but consistent growth of dividends. I mentioned utility companies several times. One stock that we've actually held in the portfolio the entire time that I've been a portfolio manager is Southern Company. And what probably very few people would expect if you go back to... 2002 since that time period Southern companies actually matched the return of the S&P 500.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Convertible like instruments in Amazon, in Microsoft, in Meta. So we really have a much broader cross-section in the equity markets to pursue investments”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think one of the biggest things that we come across is there's just a natural view that if you're an income investor you own a certain type of stock or have a certain type of equity exposure and maybe that's rooted in the concept of utility stocks like surrogates within the equity market. That's what you must invest in as an income investor. And the reality is much broader than that even in the component, say, of the SP 500, nearly 40% not paying a dividend or paying a very low dividend. That's still something, whether it's through convertible securities going back to that kind of earlier part of my career or using structured equity where we can create a security that we can own for a year or two years that can replicate that kind of profile in our strategy. So that opens up the opportunity to own and we do in our strategy today.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's evolved in a healthy way. I think using volatility measures is somewhat debunked. I think leading with a sharp ratio when you're comparing public and private assets is not something investors should be focusing on. I think the ultimately it has a meaningful place. The definition of public credit can be extraordinarily of private credit. It can be extraordinarily wide. And I think as that capital has come in, it has started to look at a lot of different places to ultimately have its role in financial markets. So we certainly think it's a viable asset. We just, and really this goes kind of across any asset. When you see the kind of capital moving into a certain area, there's just a greater risk of maybe less disciplined things happening. And that's something that we think could become a little bit.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've just seen tremendous growth, tremendous amount of capital being committed there and ultimately needs to be deployed. And I think some of this doesn't have quite the same level of transparency that it would have had if it was in the public credit market. So I think that's something that we're certainly close to and both looking at potential opportunities because we can play in private assets within our Franklin income strategies. But if there were something that we would want to keep very much on the radar is what is happening in that space in terms of credit quality.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think if you look at some of the policy measures, maybe not initially out of the gate following the financial crisis, but the long tooth that some of those policies had and the distortion ultimately that was created in markets, I think there's a different view of maybe the appropriateness of some of the policy today than there certainly was at the time. Look, ultimately, the fear of systemic risk does create opportunity for us. I think being in a highly diversified strategy, not just from an asset class standpoint, but investing across the range of fixed income sectors and the range of sectors within the equity market certainly helps lend a bit resilience to the strategy in the case where markets become a little bit more concerned about systemic risks. You know, I think one of the probably more interesting things that is happening today that I'm sure you've talked to other guests about is the private credit space.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think first from a top down standpoint, we have had a nice tailwind. We have had an economy that's been growing. We've had capital markets that have provided solutions to companies that need to. Restructurings along the way in prior market cycles would have led to a higher default rate. So I think you have to make that adjustment as well. I think for us in our strategy, it's very much, though, about the fundamental analysis, the idiosyncratic risk and working. We want to be in situations, particularly in lower credit quality companies, really understanding that that path, that management has to ensure that the company moves to a more solid footing. And that could be the debt maturity wall or access to capital and liquidity to ultimately deal with debt as it comes due.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that was part of the, like I said before, the very loud announcement that the bond market made around its returning to a more normal functioning in 2022.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think for us it's much harder to have that make sense in our strategy, to play a role in the portfolio. But it's something that the more that's out there, we may not have participated in those new issues in 2020 or 2021, but come back in 2022 when rates move. And bestly they're attracted, right? I don't think many investors didn't expect that investment-grade corporate bonds could drop 20 to 25 points, and they did. So there's always a time for it. And the more of that that is issued in the market just gives us that opportunity down the line.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. And that's something that we've really seen over the last five years, certainly when longer term rates were a lot lower. Really across the board, there were companies where we saw equities trading in mid-teens multiples with 3% dividend yields and the same benchmark longer-term debt from those companies yielding 1.5 to 2%. Didn't make any sense, right? Exactly. At that time, we'd be very tilted to the common stock and using other things within the equity structured equity in particular. But fast forward two years, rates surge higher, those same companies, the stocks, many cases were at the same levels or same valuations, yet bonds had gone from yielding 2% to maybe yielding 5%.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or some combination, which it is somewhat common in a multi-asset strategy to have kind of different Components. And if you like the”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think one of the more interesting components of our strategy is taking a little bit more of a holistic approach for how we invest in a company. I mentioned before, you know, sitting down at times with company management teams when you're approaching it from both an equity and fixed income analysis standpoint. Well, looking across a capital structure, it's pretty common that between a third or 40% of the portfolio will be invested in companies where we own multiple parts of a company's capital structure.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We can look for opportunities where we're not trying to identify the catalyst next quarter or two quarters from now. We're looking at investment with favorable fundamentals that we think over time can deliver for investors. And that income component, once again, kind of a significant part of maybe the near-term total return.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, I think from maybe a bigger picture, you know, the move towards more passive exposures, the flood of money into passive investments has maybe exacerbated some of these dynamics around particularly the dispersion between the megacap stocks, the market-weighted indices, and the average stock or the equal weighted indices. I think for us, it really becomes more about security selection. There's still plenty of liquidity in those other stocks and to the extent that we can turn over rocks that maybe other investors are not looking at that aren't being influenced as much by the magnitude of flows coming into passive indices is something that is a big part of our overall allocation. But I would really go back to this kind of view that as an income investor.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think we've gone through this period since the pandemic with different cycles within the equity markets. And certainly there was a tilt immediately towards growth and value underperformed. I think it shifted a bit, certainly in 23 and 20 and 2004. We saw it transition to more of a market cap dominance. And that certainly has proceeded. I think since the beginning of 2023, something like the S&P 500 market cap has nearly doubled the performance of the S&P 500 to equal weight index. So we do think there's a lot of other things kind of under that initial layer. If you pull it back and look at the broader equity markets, that there's a lot of opportunity across industries where companies are benefiting from the expansion in the economy that are benefiting from the secular dynamics that we see, whether it be in manufacturing, investment, or technology.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, there's something like the labor market clearly has taken kind of a front seat, right? We had the Fed really focused on fighting inflation. And then as we saw the labor market weakening ultimately encouraged the Fed to begin a resumption of the interest rate cuts. Now, I think there's kind of a reluctance in the labor market on both sides, right? There's a reluctance maybe at the corporate level to hire is a lot of uncertainty. Some of that was brought on by the onset of tariffs and just the uncertainty around where that was going to impact businesses. And then I think you can ignore AI and the role that that's have happening. So there's this reluctance maybe to hire and a reluctance to fire. So we're stuck with a little bit more stagnant component in labor market.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think certainly that needs to be the direction of travel, what that specific number needs to be to get some activity. Probably there's some other factors as well, certainly the overall health of the economy in the labor market are going to be a major component of being able to get some of that activity going in the housing market.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“An additional $200 billion, but even beyond that, there could be an extension. So, you know, we did see the mortgage market react. We saw spreads kind of come down. And, you know, ultimately bringing longer-term rates down is going to be probably the biggest beneficiary in terms of activity within the housing market.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think that agency mortgages tend to be our core component within that part of the fixed income markets, but we're always evaluating different opportunities asset-backed oriented investments. And right now, we're pretty light. We do have a fair amount of corporate debt that is secure debt.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's unbelievable. It is a great story. It was part of the original custodian funds for Franklin. And the first four were really the four asset classes at the time, a bond fund, a stock fund, a preferred fund, and a utility fund. And then the final series of custodian funds was the income fund, which was meant to look at those other four strategies, four asset classes, and find the most attractive income investments. Sure.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To see That strategy gets adopted in different vehicles is something that was a big part of taking this strategy that's been so important for Franklin Templeton as a whole to a different type of investor.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, personally, mentioned I had a chance to sit down with Charlie last month, something I try to do on The path that we've been on with Franklin income, joining in 2002, it was a large strategy for Franklin at the time. It was around $8 billion in assets under management. And I think what really kind of maybe though defined the strategy was that period coming out of the financial crisis. And navigating our way and being able to engage the broad cross-section of markets and perform very well for five-year period really help it establish this. But at the same time, we realized that investors, financial advisors do like a range of different strategies or the ability to use different vehicles to deliver an investment strategy. And that was something where in 2022, we launched Franklin Income and SMA vehicle. And in 2023, we launched Franklin Income Strategy and an ETF. So it's been, and”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lot of companies, whether it's utilities or industrials that I think have a pretty interesting profile for the rest of the decade. So if we can pursue investments in their common stock, maybe there's a 2% to 3% dividend yield, but if we can access a convertible, we can blend that yield up to something that's more attractive for a strategy and yet still retain a pretty interesting profile on the upside.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we made such a significant move into fixed income in 2022 and 2023 that we do have that now in the corporate space in particular. We have companies that are engaging the market refinancing. So some of the real prized kind of investments we were able to make at the time, we are now seeing some cash coming back into the portfolio. But the way we treat that is that just because a dollar comes out, maybe a high yield bond is called away or matures, which they do in fact do at times, it doesn't mean that dollar goes back into the high yield bond market for us. It's always going to be that next most attractive place that we're looking. Today we might be looking more specifically in structured equity or inconvertible securities where we think outside of the very large mega-cap tech companies that have driven this market since 2023, that there's pretty reasonable valuation. So there's a”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think the backdrop was really set for that dynamic. And what I mean by that is where rates had declined to. You didn't have the carried offset negative returns in fixed income and the resetting of where rates should have been provided that the fuel to drive those kind of negative total returns. So we really think we're in that, certainly not in that position today. Never say, can we don't expect that that can never happen again, but certainly not the backdrop that we're envisioning today. So just the rationale of why our bonds, can bonds be a diversifier in a multi-asset portfolio. You know, I think we would have argued, and if you look at our asset allocation in 2021, we did not believe so. And they certainly did not offer attractive income for investors. And that was good.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. And that's where I think because we have such a flexible mandate, our tension turns more to how can we optimize the positioning of the portfolio. We always have assets that are benefiting in some way, have some liquidity profile to them that lets us focus on being playing offense a little bit more during those periods of time. And I think that's something that has always enabled us to kind of recharge the portfolio, pretty firm believer in the price you pay matters concept, whether it's an income investment or something that's designed to create more capital appreciation. And that's something that really has enabled us to kind of ultimately come out of periods of volatility and deliver for our investors, even though there might have been some bumps along the way.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Markets and maybe even a worst case would be going to the sidelines, which we know a lot of investors did in September of 2008 or March of 2009. Well,”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think certainly the periods of extreme volatility are going to be challenging for any strategy. And in my career, the ones that I'll go back to, certainly when managing the convertible fund around the dot-com crash, and then in our income strategies, both financial crisis. So, you know, yeah, market's bottomed in March 2009, but September of 2008 was pretty difficult for any investor. To me, I think what's really defined are strategies and maybe become a little bit of the focal point of our approach is to continually look forward. I mean, I think the number of investors, even if we were to bring this more into the current time, and we spoke less than a year ago and tariff volatility was impacting markets, I think a lot of investors have the tendency to sit on their hands a bit when there's this kind of volatility playing out in market.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think that is, and certainly there are investors that play only in certain parts. And when you're flirting with that lower credit quality component B minus into CCCC, that starts to change the dynamic of who the investor base potentially is.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we do think moving up into the Credit quality components of high yield is probably one of the more attractive areas. You know, we also like to, so if you're looking at BBB, double B spreads, we want to be in the higher quality credits to the extent that we're owning a broader section of high yield, which we do in our strategy. It's emphasising more on the latter. Security selection, what is an individual company doing to be able to refance the debt, to term out their maturities, or ultimately to improve the overall credit quality. We do think rating agencies lag by a significant margin. And if you can get ahead of that and use your fundamental analysis, that's an area within the fixed income markets we want to be focusing on.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's not something that we're focused on today. I think to the extent that we see inflation continue to come down and settle in at a lower level, that tips may become something that we want in the portfolio to the extent that then inflation could surprise to the upside.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Risk. So sometimes in our strategy, we do think the biggest lever that we have, moving from one asset class to another, is the most appropriate. We certainly had that in 2021 and 2023. Today, we think that lever is a little less important and it's a little bit more about relative value between sectors and or security selection, idiosyncratic risk. So I think in the past year, moving out of some of the significant overweight that we had in investment grade corporate debt, for example, in favor of agency mortgages because spreads had really widened out was something that worked out well for us in 2025.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, I would say in fixed income, we are really pretty diversified across the range. And for us, that is U.S. treasuries, it's agency mortgage-backed securities, it's investment-grade corporate bonds, and high yield corporate bonds. And we have different factors there. One, we do think the carrier, the income component of fixed income is quite attractive again today. And like I said before, it's been a while since that was the case, or there was a long period of time where that was certainly not a function, not a benefit that investors and fixed income had. Spreads on the corporate side do concern us a little bit, but at the same time, we have seen extended periods of time historically where sprads have stayed on the tighter side, near historical lows. So, you know, our view is that you want to be diversified, look a little bit more at ADOC.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's a good. I might broaden it from the two year to say let's look at the curve. Okay. Especially today where I think there's probably more sensitivity around where longer-term interest rates are sitting and potentially could go. You know, to me, anything that increases the confidence, raises the uncertainty level around the economy, I think are challenges that if we were to see the long end respond unfavorably to, would be quite problematic for markets.”
2026-03-06 · Masters in Business · Franklin Templeton's Ed Perks on Fixed Income Investing · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source