Sonal Desai

About Sonal Desai

Sonal Desai, Ph.D. (born 1963) serves as President and Chief Executive Officer – Investment Management of Franklin Universal Trust (FT) and has held this role since 2018 . Over at least the past five years, she has concurrently served as Director and Executive Vice President of Franklin Advisers, Inc., Executive Vice President of Franklin Templeton Institutional, LLC, and as an officer across funds in the Franklin Templeton fund complex; FT officers are appointed by the Trustees and serve at the pleasure of the Board . The Investment Manager or its affiliates pay officer salaries and expenses; no pension or retirement benefits are accrued as part of FT fund expenses .

Past Roles

External Roles

No external directorships or public company board roles for Sonal Desai are disclosed in FT’s proxy officer biographies; the disclosed principal occupations are within Franklin Advisers, Franklin Templeton Institutional, and officer roles in the fund complex .

Fixed Compensation

• The Investment Manager (Franklin Advisers, Inc.) or its affiliates pay the salaries and expenses of FT’s officers; no pension or retirement benefits are accrued as part of FT fund expenses .
• FT’s proxy statements do not disclose officer base salary, target/actual bonus, or other cash compensation at the fund level (officers are compensated by the adviser) .

Performance Compensation

• FT’s proxy statements do not disclose equity awards (RSUs/PSUs/options), performance metric weightings, targets, or payouts for officers because officer compensation is paid by the Investment Manager and not by the Fund .

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• FT proxies state that certain Interested Trustees and officers of the Fund are shareholders of Franklin Resources, Inc. (the parent, “Resources”) and may receive indirect remuneration due to participation in management fees and other fees received by the Investment Manager and affiliates; the Investment Manager or its affiliates pay the officers’ salaries and expenses .
• FT proxies include holdings policies and beneficial ownership tables for Trustees, but they do not provide a beneficial ownership breakdown for officers; no officer-level FT share ownership, pledging, or hedging disclosures are provided in the FT proxies .

Employment Terms

• Officers are appointed by FT’s Trustees and serve at the pleasure of the Board; Desai’s service as President/CEO – Investment Management dates from 2018 .
• No employment contract, severance, or change‑of‑control terms for FT officers are disclosed in the FT proxies; compensation for officers is paid by the Investment Manager, with no pension/retirement accrual at the Fund .

Investment Implications

• Pay-for-performance transparency at the FT fund level is limited: officer compensation (including base salary, bonus metrics, and equity mix) is determined and paid by Franklin Advisers, Inc., not the Fund, reducing direct visibility into Desai’s incentive alignment with FT’s NAV/market performance .
• Governance structure points to alignment primarily through Franklin Resources, Inc. economics (management/advisory fees) rather than FT-specific equity compensation, implying that retention and incentives are tied to the Franklin complex rather than to FT alone .
• For trading signals (e.g., insider selling pressure, vesting events), FT proxies do not provide officer equity or vesting disclosures; monitoring parent-level disclosures and any Forms 4 (if applicable) would be necessary to assess near-term selling or pledging dynamics.