Franklin Templeton has completed the expansion of its RIA distribution team, according to Dan Muzzarelli, the company’s head of RIA and platform distribution, as it eyes growing opportunities around ETFs, alternatives, and direct indexing.
Muzzarelli, Franklin Templeton’s former global head of ETF distribution, started his new role on October 1st. At that time, the company’s RIA distribution had 13 territory-based salespeople, he told InvestmentNews at Schwab IMPACT in Boston.
“Since then, I have added five more,” he said. “I have been recruiting for the last few months – we had five start in the last four or five weeks.”
“This expansion is an opportunity for us to meet our clients where they are,” Muzzarelli told InvestmentNews.
Muzzarelli explained that Franklin Templeton, which currently offers over 1,000 products in the U.S., has also undertaken “a bit of a revamp” in that area. “We’re taking a very hard look at the product side that we have and the opportunities to improve that through consolidation and expansion – we have been very cautious about doing multi-fund conversions.”
“We have done a lot of work on the alternatives side, direct indexing, and ETFs as well – that’s really where we have tried to make sure that we have things that make sense,” he added.
The ETF marketplace has been booming in recent years. The global ETF marketplace stood at $19.85 trillion at the end of 2025, a $4.9 trillion increase from the end of 2024, according to State Street data.
Data recently released by JPMorgan Chase show that, as of September, U.S. ETF assets totaled $16.3 trillion.
Demand for alternatives has also been growing – a recent survey by CION Investments, YCharts, and Compound Insights revealed that 95% of advisors incorporate alternatives into client portfolios.
In another survey by FTSE Russell last month, 83% of US-based financial advisors said they were currently using or planned to use direct indexing, with the same proportion agreeing on the benefits for high-net-worth clients.
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