Webinars

The private credit market is undergoing significant transformation, expanding beyond traditional middle-market corporate loans into new sectors.

In this webcast, Benefit Street Partners will discuss how the current weakness in the commercial real estate market and years of bank retrenchment are creating a new frontier of opportunity for private credit.

Key Topics:

• How private debt is driving deeper into new asset classes like commercial real estate
• Why private lenders are best positioned to fill the void left behind by cautious traditional lenders
• Lending opportunities in CRE sectors like multifamily that are being overshadowed by the office sector’s weakness

The private equity secondary market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with transaction volumes reaching record highs.

Under the surface, there are even more significant evolutions taking place. Large LPs are entering the market for the first time, increasing supply. GP-led deals are becoming a standard method for LPs to gain liquidity. Single-asset continuation vehicles (SACVs) are emerging as a diverse, undercapitalized segment.

Join Victor Wu and Taylor Robinson, Partners at Lexington Partners, for an insightful discussion on what LPs need to know about the next evolution of the secondary market.

In this webcast we will discuss the primary and secondary effects this new environment may have on EM equity and debt investments.

Key Topics:

• Strategies for optimizing private market allocations through the secondary market
• A potential multi-year window for a wave of secondary market supply
• The growing importance of GP-led secondaries as liquidity solutions for LPs
• Why SACVs offer LPs a diverse and deep opportunity set to be highly selective

In just over 100 days, the Trump administration has disrupted the global status quo with America First policies that have massive implications for capital markets. Investors are now grappling with a flood of new questions challenging their long-standing trade, geopolitical, and macroeconomic assumptions.

In this webcast we will discuss the primary and secondary effects this new environment may have on EM equity and debt investments.

Key Questions Discussed:

• What will be the major drivers behind further EM/DM/US return divergence?
• What countries are likely to benefit or suffer from trade agreements and “friendshoring” trends?
• What is the likelihood of and the potential fallout of the US and China decoupling?
• Are we at the start of a new US dollar currency regime?

Join Franklin Venture Partners for an engaging conversation exploring current investment trends in defense technology. Our experienced panelists will briefly explain the origins of today’s defense industrial base before discussing the recent explosion of interest into this category. The panelists will leverage their decades of defense investment, military and policy experience to offer a unique perspective on the role of private capital in building a new defense industrial base. This differentiated deep dive into the past, present, and future of defense investing will also include panelists’ personal guidance on how investors should be thinking about the industry.

Key Topics:

• An overview of the current State of Defense Industrial Base
• Why is defense technology so popular now with VCs and why is VC well-suited to help build the new Defense Industrial Base?
• Perceived opportunities and risks with investing in defense technology

The historic market volatility of 2025 is sparking renewed interest in ways to improve downside risk management. Risk mitigation approaches continue to evolve, based on lessons learned from past market crises.

In this webcast, we'll explore the range of risk management strategies that institutions are using today, along with the key factors to consider when implementing a new hedging program.

Key Topics:

• How institutions are rethinking traditional principles of portfolio construction to improve diversification and rebuild liquidity
• The different ways institutions are managing day-to-day market volatility and looming long-tail risk
• The advantages and drawbacks of each type of approach

Markets are adjusting to a world of greater macro uncertainty, diminished corporate guidance, and increased geopolitical risk. This marks a critical inflection point for fixed income investors.

Join Sonal Desai, CIO Franklin Templeton Fixed Income, Josh Lohmeier, Director of Corporate Credit, Navin Belani, Head of Credit Research, and Glenn Voyles, Director of High Yield Credit, to discuss the rapidly evolving fixed income marketplace.

Key Topics:

• Macro Outlook: Are recession and inflation concerns overstated or underappreciated? We’ll examine the key macro scenarios shaping markets today, including the impact of the ever-changing tariff policies, prospective tax cuts, and deregulation on U.S. growth, inflation, interest rates and corporate earnings.
• Credit Landscape: Credit volatility is meaningfully rising. What does “fair value” look like?  We’ll explore the range of potential outcomes across economic scenarios, from soft landing to stagflation, and discuss where sector dispersion may create both risks and relative value opportunities.
• High Yield: With significant volatility in high yield markets, how close are we to levels that have historically coincided with rising downgrades and defaults? Which sectors—cyclical, non-cyclical, or otherwise—are vulnerable? And where might elevated spreads present attractive entry points for increased HY allocations?

While there has been a lot of hype around the disruptive potential of blockchain technology, investors are often surprised to learn that it’s already being used in industries today.

Digital identity company SpruceID is an example of blockchain happening now. They’ve launched on-chain drivers licenses and permits with various US states and are partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to digitize citizenship and immigration credentials. 

Join us for a discussion with the founder & CEO of SpruceID to explore:

• How blockchain is being implemented now to make your personal information more secure
• Why companies are adopting on-chain identity technologies to improve banking and fraud protection
• Other areas where the new US administration may accelerate blockchain adoption

Commercial real estate (CRE) -- a historically dependable asset class --is in a rare moment of weakness. However, the long-term secular drivers of the market remain compelling, especially among alternative CRE sectors.  We will explore the hidden opportunities presented by alternative sectors in CRE.  how they are uniquely positioned to benefit from secular tailwinds such as demographic shifts, technological advancements, and a nationwide housing shortage.

This session will provide insights into how these factors create robust opportunities in non-traditional CRE sectors.  In this webcast, experts from Clarion discuss the following key topics:

• The five secular forces that will drive the next decade's wave of CRE growth.
• New research that reveals the size of the investable universe for alternative CRE sectors.
• The top opportunities in alternative sectors such as life sciences, storage, and residential housing that present compelling long-term equity opportunities.

Activity in the collateralized loan obligation (CLO) market surged to new heights in 2024, with both the U.S. and Europe nearing issuance records.

With credit conditions easing in this year, the fundamental appeal of CLOs continues to endure due to their floating-rate nature, structural protective features, and higher yield potential compared to other fixed income instruments.

In this webcast, credit specialists from Benefit Street Partners / Alcentra reveal their current CLO market outlook and highlight the spectrum of opportunities across the US and Europe markets.                       

Key topics:

• Global CLO market outlook and the forces driving investor interest in CLOs
• The best relative value across the global CLOs spectrum, including mezzanine versus equity tranches and US versus Europe
• Why CLO equity tranches are often under-appreciated, and can offer more attractive risk-adjusted returns than investors realize
• The particular benefits of CLOs as an opportunistic holding that complements existing fixed income and private credit allocations

In 2024, the private equity secondary market activity surpassed $140 billion—the highest level of volume on record.

Looking forward, the secondary market continues to offer buyside investors a broad and diversified opportunity set to find high-quality assets at attractive valuations.

In this webcast, experts from Lexington Partners will delve into why LPs may want to expand and diversify their private equity allocations into middle-market secondaries and other non-traditional transaction types like single asset continuation vehicles.

Key Topics:

• Why the secondary market has become an essential exit option
• Where to take advantage of supply-demand imbalances in the secondary market in 2025
• Why moving down the market cap spectrum can open more compelling opportunities
• The growing and undercapitalized market for single-asset continuation vehicle transactions

The commercial real estate sector is in a rare moment of weakness. Property valuations are starting to bottom out, but traditional lenders are still pulling back to prepare themselves to absorb losses.

At the same time, $3.4 trillion of real estate debt is maturing in the next 3 years and in need of refinancing.

In this webcast, experts from Benefit Street Partners will explore the strategic opportunities in CRE from a new lender’s perspective, focusing on less competitive sectors buoyed by supportive lending conditions and the potential for private credit to fill the void left by traditional banking institutions.

Key topics:

• The current state of CRE lending activity in the US.
• Why private lenders are best positioned to fill the void left behind by cautious traditional lenders.
• Insights into more resilient CRE sectors that appear attractive in 2025 and beyond

There is no shortage of fanciful predictions about how crypto and the underlying blockchain technology will change the world. The reality is, we are beginning to see real-world deployment and early signs of meaningful disruption across multiple industries.

In this webcast, we explore early-stage examples of how blockchain is already changing how industries function—from capital market structure to data storage to telecommunications.

Key topics:

• Tangible examples of blockchain projects that are already scaling and generating revenue
• Which industries are being impacted now, and which are likely to be impacted next
• Approaches institutions are taking to invest in blockchain companies with compelling business prospects

Surprisingly, many organizations haven’t taken a hard look at this area of their retirement plan since the Global Financial Crisis—more than 15 years ago.

Today, the combination of major shifts in worker demographics, retirement regulations, and the interest rate environment makes providing best-in-class capital preservation options increasingly vital to support employees’ retirement objectives.

In this webcast hosted by Pension & Investments, DC plan experts from Chevron Corp. and CAPTRUST provide their perspectives on why they revisited this often overlooked, but critically important part of their retirement plan menus.

Key topics:

• Common, but unintentional biases embedded in many DC plan designs
• Key factors driving sponsors to reevaluating their capital preservation options
• A comparison framework to decide which capital preservation options are a good fit for a plan’s participants

There are many challenges facing the commercial real estate (CRE) market today—elevated interest rates, rising cap rates, and a lack of capital due to the dislocation in regional banks.

With $1.7 trillion of real estate debt maturing in the next three years, and many expecting some properties to enter default or have sizable losses, there will undoubtedly be some struggles among CRE investors. However, these challenges may also create a significant opportunity for private creditors to uncover hidden gems among an abundance of “broken balance sheet” properties.

In this webcast, experts from Benefit Street Partners discuss the current state of the US real estate market and why they see a unique multi-year window for CRE debt investing.

Key topics:

• The growing opportunity in lending to select “broken balance sheet” properties that are over-levered and/or undercapitalized 
• Today’s reversal in the relative value between real estate equity and debt investments
• Examples of some of the most compelling CRE debt deals closed in 2024

With a slow exit environment for the last few years, private equity has been stuck in low gear—creating liquidity issues for many institutional investors’ private market allocations.

However, the PE secondary market has shifted into high gear.  Global secondary market volume reached a record high of $100+ billion for the third consecutive year in a row, as it served as an important release valve for LPs in need of liquidity options.

In this webcast, investment experts from Lexington Partners will discuss how the continuing expansion of the PE secondary market creates opportunities for buyside investors to find high-quality assets for sale at attractive valuations.

Key topics:

• Why we may be in a unique multi-year window to capitalize on secondary opportunities.
• Long-term structural catalysts for further expansion of the secondary market.
• The diverse opportunities in less competitive middle market secondary offerings.
• The expanding universe of investment options in GP-led continuation, structured equity, and “club-style” co-investment transactions.

Today’s investment regime looks dramatically different compared to just a short time ago.

After more than a decade of rock-bottom interest rates, benign inflation, and stable global growth, these trends have kicked into reverse—giving rise to a new risk regime with greater global macro dislocations and drawdowns possible.

As a result, old assumptions around diversification and how to best reduce risk in an asset allocation may need to be revisited.

In this webcast, industry experts from the State of Connecticut Retirement Plans, Arizona State Retirement System, Innocap and Leste Group explore the ways they are rethinking portfolio construction to help mitigate risk in their asset allocations.

Key topics:

• A comparison of approaches to potentially reduce portfolio drawdowns including, long-tail hedges, risk overlays, and alternative diversifiers
• How institutions are integrating risk mitigation strategies into asset allocations to seek to better weather market volatility
• Ways to potentially add flexibility, liquidity, and ballast to alternative allocations with sizeable, illiquid private market investments

As many companies can no longer "amend and extend" previous loan agreements, private lenders are presented with both a deep and highly diversified opportunity set. We believe a multi-year window is opening to provide creative capital solutions to "good companies" with "bad balance sheets" that need to extend their runway and avoid bankruptcy.

In this webcast, experts from Benefit Street Partners and Alcentra provide perspectives on the US and European private credit landscape and why special situations investing is ready for a resurgence.

Key topics:

• Why the old playbook of "amend and extend" may not be possible for many borrowers
• How this cycles' opportunity set is unique compared to historical periods
• Examples of how creative capital solutions that avoid the value-destroying process of bankruptcy may result in equity-like returns for private creditors
• A comparison of risk and opportunities in the US and European private lending landscape

Investors throughout history have searched for ways to invest at the early stages of new technological trends that have the potential to disrupt and eventually transform economies.

We believe that new blockchain technologies, and the protocol-based networks they enable, represent a significant investment opportunity that has the potential to revolutionize how data is stored, verified, and transferred throughout the world.

In this webcast, investment experts from Coinbase and Franklin Templeton explore the evolution of digital assets, the rise of the protocol-based economy, and the tangible investment opportunities presented by applying blockchain technology to existing industries. 

Key topics:

• How institutional investors are pioneering investments in digital assets and blockchain-related technologies.
• How blockchain is enabling a new protocol-based economy and creating new investment opportunities.
• How traditional investment frameworks can be applied to digital assets.

Commercial real estate (CRE) was in the headlines for much of 2023, with talk of an “office apocalypse” brewing in 2024. Despite the negative CRE headlines, other sectors have a much healthier outlook once you factor in their exposure to secular tailwinds like demographic shifts, technology trends, deglobalization, and a nationwide housing shortage.

At the same time, over $2 trillion in CRE debt will need to be refinanced in the next 4 years1—providing a near-term opportunity for private credit to fill the gap created by the pullback in bank lending.

In this webcast, CRE experts from Clarion Partners and Benefit Street Partners discuss the risks and opportunities in the current CRE landscape from both an equity and debt investment perspective.

Key topics:

• How the office meltdown and greater sector dispersion is changing the CRE landscape
• Why alternative sectors like life sciences, self-storage, and even select retail offer compelling CRE equity opportunities
• Why we are at the start of a multiyear window for an attractive CRE debt environment
• A comparison of the relative value offered by CRE equity and debt investments in 2024

The prolonged, anomalous post-GFC era of benign credit markets has come to a close. High inflation, limited central bank tools, financial sector volatility, slowing global growth and margin compression, coupled with the explosion of the leveraged finance market, is fueling a fertile special situations investment environment in both North America and Europe.

Numerous opportunities in both primary and secondary markets are emerging, which may benefit managers that are able to be nimble and flexible in capital deployment. As the tides change in credit markets, the North American and European stressed and distressed debt universe has rapidly expanded in just over a year.

Join two leading alternative credit experts from Benefit Street Partners and Alcentra to discuss opportunities and risks in a renewed special situations landscape.

Key topics:

• Rolling opportunity set - Similar to the market opportunity set of the late 90s and early 2000s, we anticipate wider spreads and more frequent dislocations going forward.
• Distressed supply poised to grow - An explosion of leveraged credit fueled debt investments over the past several years. Today, historical distressed ratios imply a potential for a $500bn+ opportunity set across North America and Europe.
• Primary and secondary market focus - Adaptive portfolio composition is a sizeable advantage, with attractive unlevered return potential across both primary and secondary markets, and private and public investments.

Institutional investors spent much of 2022 keeping up with the rapidly evolving digital asset ecosystem.

Adoption ranged widely; from initiating allocation to cryptocurrencies to building entire back-office functions on blockchains. But the collapse of several prominent players in late 2022 shook the industry. Institutional interest in the digital asset ecosystem remains intact, albeit fundamentally altered.

Join us as we explore the top questions institutions ask when investing, trading, and servicing digital assets.

Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) surprise collapse rocked markets Friday, sending shockwaves across public and private markets over the weekend.

Join Franklin Templeton Institute's Stephen Dover, Chief Market Strategist and a selection of our portfolio managers for a conversation where we explore the likely impacts across capital markets and industries.

2022 was one of the most challenging years on record for emerging market debt. Although most expect growth to slow, we believe there is room for cautious optimism for the asset class for 2023 and beyond.

Topics of discussion include:

• Recent capital withdraws and impact across different developing countries.
• Key risks for the EM debt outlook: dollar, global growth, rates.
• How investors should look at the asset class with a long-term view.

Please join our webinar with Nicholas Hardingham and Stephanie Ouwendijk, portfolio managers from Franklin EMD Opportunities Team who will discuss their expectations for the year ahead and answer your questions.