Stephan hired for new COO role at Franklin Templeton Wealth Alternatives

The private wealth alternatives business unit of Franklin Templeton has a new global chief operating officer.

George Stephan steps into a newly created role for Franklin Templeton Wealth Alternatives with a brief that includes product innovation and investor services. The role also feeds into business development, management, and operations.

Alternative assets is big business for Franklin Templeton with assets under management of $264 billion, around 16% of its total $1.65 trillion AUM globally. Its Wealth Alternatives business is focused primarily on private wealth with the separate Alternatives by Franklin Templeton having a broader remit to include both private and institutional investors.

The new COO of Wealth Alternatives reports to Adam Spector, Franklin Templeton’s executive vice president and head of Global Distribution.

“With more than 40 years of experience in alternatives and 382 alternative investment professionals around the world, we have been deliberate about building our capabilities in multiple ways – through acquisitions of specialists like Benefit Street Partners, Lexington and Clarion and by onboarding our offerings to key advisor platforms to make them more accessible to investors,” Spector said. “The result is that Franklin Templeton is one of the few traditional asset managers to build a successful alternatives business spread across a broad range of strategies and geographies.”

Stephan’s resume includes more than five years at KKR where he spent most of his last year with the firm as head of strategy and business development for the Global Client Solutions unit. Prior to that he was COO of Americas Global Wealth for more than four years.

He began his financial services career at Oppenheimer & Co. before heading to Morgan Stanley where he spent almost a decade and was head of Single Manager Hedge Funds, Product Development and Strategy.

He was also recently appointed to the 2025 IPA Board of Directors.

Franklin Templeton’s CEO Jenny Johnson has been speaking about doing what’s right and the firm’s commitment to clients’ interests amid a crisis of confidence as an SEC and DOJ probe into its Western Asset Management business sparked a historic $37B exodus.