Fund Evaluator:

Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A Overview

Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A (SBBAX) is an actively managed Allocation Moderate Allocation fund. Franklin Templeton Investments launched the fund in 1996.

The investment seeks balance of growth of capital and income. The fund is a fund of funds—it invests in other mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) and closed-end funds. It organizes its investments in underlying funds into two main asset classes: the equity class and the fixed income class. The portfolio managers may invest across all asset classes and strategies. The fund managers will allocate between 35% to 65% of the fund’s assets to underlying funds that invest in equity and equity-like strategies and between 35% to 65% of the fund’s assets to underlying funds that invest in fixed income and fixed income-like strategies.

About Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A (SBBAX)

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: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A has 21 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 92.5% 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 Conservative Gr A is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A has 16.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 50.1%. There is 11.7% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.3% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 38.9% (33.7% domestic bond, 5.2% foreign bond and 0.1% convertible bond). Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A has -0.4% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $300 million in total assets, which is below the $2 billion average for the Moderate 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.

SBBAX 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 Conservative Gr A expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Moderate Allocation category. Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A has an expense ratio of 0.95%, which is 4% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. 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 Conservative Gr A has a portfolio turnover rate of 37%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 52% for the Moderate Allocation category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Franklin Multi-Asset Conservative Gr A returned -0.8%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Moderate 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 Conservative Gr A has a trailing yield of 2.47%, which is above the 1.97% 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 Conservative Gr A Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 6.1%, 0.4 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 12.7% over the past year (grade of C), 11.1% over the past three years (grade of D) and 5.8% per year over the past five years (grade of D) and 7.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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