Fund Evaluator:

Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R Overview

Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R (LMLRX) is an actively managed Allocation Moderately Conservative Allocation fund. Franklin Templeton Investments launched the fund in 2014.

The investment seeks income as a primary objective and long-term growth of capital as a secondary objective. The fund is a fund of funds—it invests in other mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) and closed-end funds (such funds collectively referred to as “underlying funds”). The portfolio managers will allocate between 15% to 45% of the fund’s assets to underlying funds that invest in equity and equity-like strategies and between 55% to 85% of the fund’s assets to underlying funds that invest in fixed income and fixed income-like strategies.

About Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R (LMLRX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 1.77 years: Thomas Nelson (2026), Brett Goldstein (2026), Laura Green (2021). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has 21 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 92.8% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has 15.7% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 32.8%. There is 7.7% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.4% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 58.2% (50.2% domestic bond, 8.0% foreign bond and 0.2% convertible bond). Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has 1.4% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $672 million in total assets, which is below the $561 million average for the Moderately Conservative Allocation category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

LMLRX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Moderately Conservative Allocation category. Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has an expense ratio of 1.18%, which is 17% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has a portfolio turnover rate of 32%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 43% for the Moderately Conservative Allocation category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R returned -0.8%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Moderately Conservative Allocation category had an average return of -0.3%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R has a trailing yield of 2.97%, which is below the 3.29% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains semi-annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Franklin Multi-Asset Defensive Growth R Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 4.0%, 0.8 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 9.2% over the past year (grade of D), 8.3% over the past three years (grade of D) and 3.4% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 4.8% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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