Kevin Blatchford
About Kevin Blatchford
Kevin R. Blatchford serves as Vice President and Assistant Treasurer of Putnam Premier Income Trust (PPT) and has held officer roles with the Putnam funds since 2024. The fund’s proxy lists his principal occupation over the past five years as Director, Financial Reporting, Putnam U.S. Holdings I, LLC (Putnam Holdings); he was born in 1967 . As with other fund officers, he is an employee of Franklin Advisers or its affiliates; officer compensation is paid by the adviser (not the fund), and officers serve indefinite terms until resignation, retirement, death, or removal . For context on fund performance during his tenure, PPT reported a 4.33% total return at market price for the six months ended 1/31/25 (not annualized), net assets of $360.7 million, and a 0.46% expense ratio for the partial period .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic impact (as disclosed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Putnam U.S. Holdings I, LLC (Putnam Holdings) | Director, Financial Reporting | Not disclosed (listed as principal occupation over past five years) | Listed as principal occupation in PPT proxy |
| Putnam Premier Income Trust (PPT) | Vice President and Assistant Treasurer | Since 2024 | Officer of the fund |
External Roles
- None disclosed in PPT’s proxy and shareholder reports .
Fixed Compensation
- Officers (including Blatchford) are employees of Franklin Advisers or its affiliates; compensation is paid by the adviser and not disclosed on an individual basis by the fund .
- Certain officers on the Trustees’ independent administrative staff are compensated per Trustee determination and reimbursed by the funds, but Blatchford is not identified among those footnoted staff members .
Performance Compensation
- No disclosure of individual metrics (e.g., revenue, EBITDA, TSR targets), option/RSU grants, or bonus formulas for fund officers. Officer compensation structures are not itemized in PPT’s proxy .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Section 16 compliance is stated for required insiders (Trustees, certain officers, and >10% owners), but no individual beneficial ownership for Blatchford is disclosed in the proxy or N‑CSRS excerpts reviewed .
- A recent Form 3 shows another officer (Treasurer/Principal Financial Officer) reported no beneficial ownership, illustrating that some fund officers do not hold PPT shares directly; Blatchford is not listed as a Section 16 reporting person in the filings indexed here .
Employment Terms
| Term | Disclosure |
|---|---|
| Officer start of service with the Putnam funds | Since 2024 |
| Officer term | Indefinite; serves until resignation, retirement, death, or removal |
| Employer | Employee of Franklin Advisers or affiliates; principal occupation Director, Financial Reporting, Putnam Holdings |
| Contract, severance, change-in-control, non-compete | Not disclosed for officers in PPT proxy |
| Clawback, tax gross-ups, deferred comp/pension | Not disclosed for officers in PPT proxy |
Fund Performance Context During Tenure
| Metric | FY 2020 (7/31/20) | FY 2021 (7/31/21) | FY 2022 (7/31/22) | FY 2023 (7/31/23) | FY 2024 (7/31/24) | 6M (1/31/25) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market price, end ($) | 4.74 | 4.65 | 3.89 | 3.65 | 3.63 | 3.63 |
| NAV, end ($) | 4.80 | 4.62 | 4.12 | 3.82 | 3.85 | 3.77 |
| Total return at market price (%) | (3.19) | 5.63 | (9.87) | 2.08 | 8.53 | 4.33* |
| Expense ratio to avg net assets (%) | 0.94 | 0.94 | 0.96 | 0.99 | 0.94 | 0.46* |
| Net investment income ratio (%) | 4.67 | 4.21 | 4.88 | 5.76 | 6.41 | 2.75* |
| Net assets, end ($USD thousands) | 492,108 | 472,126 | 409,600 | 369,806 | 367,934 | 360,747 |
| *Not annualized. |
Additional context:
- Shares outstanding were 95,567,537 at 1/31/25; NAV/share $3.77 .
- The fund authorized buybacks up to 10% of outstanding shares through 9/30/25; it repurchased 30,484 shares in the current reporting period and 1,117,282 in the prior fiscal year, at weighted-average discounts of 7.12% and 7.92% to NAV, respectively .
Related Ownership Concentration (Trading Signal)
Large shareholder concentration can influence closed-end fund actions (distributions, buybacks, governance). Sit Investment Associates and affiliates filed multiple 13D/A amendments in 2025:
| Filing date | Reported beneficial ownership | Shares outstanding base | Implied % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/08/2025 | 23,913,683 shares | 95,567,537 | 25.0% |
| 05/09/2025 | 24,886,858 shares | 95,567,537 | 26.0% |
| 08/29/2025 | 26,818,489 shares | 95,567,537 | 28.0% |
These filings underscore potential activism or influence on fund capital allocation and trading dynamics .
Board Governance (Committee structure relevant to compensation oversight)
If the new Franklin CEF Board nominees are elected, PPT’s Board will include standing Audit, Nominating, Compensation, and Pricing & Valuation Committees, each composed entirely of Independent Trustees. The Compensation Committee’s principal function is to recommend compensation for Independent Directors (not fund officers); charters are available on Franklin Templeton’s site .
Investment Implications
- Retention risk and pay alignment: Blatchford is an adviser-employee officer with an indefinite term and no fund-level pay disclosure. This reduces insight into cash/equity mix, severance, or incentive metrics tied to fund performance, implying limited visibility into individual retention risk or trading-related selling pressure .
- Insider trading pressure: No Section 16 ownership/transactions are disclosed for Blatchford in reviewed filings; a recent Form 3 for another officer showed no holdings, suggesting minimal officer-driven sell pressure signals at the fund level .
- Governance and influence: The 2025 proxy process to transition oversight to the Franklin CEF Board and the presence of a 25–28% beneficial owner (Sit entities) create external governance and capital-allocation levers (e.g., buybacks, distribution policy) that may impact NAV/price dynamics more than individual officer incentives .
- Operating backdrop: During the most recent partial period, PPT delivered a positive market-price total return with stable market price and slight NAV decline; distribution policy and buybacks continue to be tools for managing the discount. These levers, overseen at the Board/adviser level, are more material to security performance than officer-level compensation for a closed-end fund .