Franklin Advisors

Managing Principals Paul Halpern and Jeffrey Kohn jointly lead investment decisions, a dual-principal structure that has been in place since the firm's 1999 founding. The firm does not publicly list a separate CIO or investment committee, suggesting the two founders retain direct portfolio authority. This concentrated decision-making is typical of multi-family offices operating below $1 billion in advised assets, where founder judgment substitutes for institutional committee architecture.

The firm's sourcing advantage derives from its geographic positioning — a Detroit-area headquarters with offices in Baltimore, Bethesda, New York, and São Paulo. This gives Franklin Advisors access to US Midwestern and mid-Atlantic middle-market deals that bypass coastal institutional auctions, while the Brazil office provides a distinct pipeline into Latin American real assets and credit. The firm's direct real estate practice specifically targets secondary and tertiary US markets where institutional competition is sparse.

Franklin Advisors operates as a fiduciary allocator — an outsourced CIO — rather than a fund manager. It does not raise or manage commingled funds. The firm constructs bespoke portfolios for its families across direct investments (especially real estate) and external fund commitments in private equity, private credit, and hedge funds. This separates it from platforms that sell proprietary products to client families.

The firm targets direct property investments, with an emphasis on US secondary and tertiary markets where institutional buyers are less active. Rather than bidding on trophy assets in gateway cities, Franklin Advisors appears to focus on income-producing properties — likely multifamily, industrial, and select retail — in markets like the industrial Midwest and mid-Atlantic, where local knowledge and regional banking relationships provide a pricing edge.

Franklin Advisors is a multi-family office, serving a concentrated group of high-net-worth families rather than a single wealth source. The identity of its founding or anchor family has not been publicly disclosed. The firm's footprint — five offices across two continents — and its multi-asset-class allocation model are consistent with a multi-family office structure serving 10 to 30 families, though the exact client count is not public.

The São Paulo office, established in the early 2010s, provides direct access to Brazilian real assets and credit markets — a sourcing channel few US-based mid-market multi-family offices possess. For families with global asset-allocation mandates, this grants Franklin Advisors the ability to place capital in Brazilian opportunities without relying on third-party fund managers. The office also likely serves families with existing Brazil-based holdings or business interests.

The firm's structure as a fiduciary allocator rather than a balance-sheet investor means co-investment opportunities likely pass directly to client families rather than through a firm-level vehicle. Franklin Advisors has not publicly disclosed a co-investment program or club-deal network. Given its direct real estate and private credit activities, the firm likely negotiates co-investment rights within its fund commitments but allocates those opportunities on a family-by-family basis rather than pooling them.