Franklin Resources, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Franklin Resources Earnings Conference Call for the quarter-ended December 31, 2018. Statements made in this conference call regarding Franklin Resources, Inc., which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These and other risks, uncertainties, and other important factors are described in more detail in Franklin's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the Risk Factors and MDNA sections of Franklin's most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings.

Good morning. My name is Brenda, and I'll be your call operator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you'd like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on a telephone keypad. The confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star 0 on your telephone keypad. And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Franklin Resources Chairman and CEO, Mr. Greg Johnson. Mr. Johnson, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining the call today to discuss this quarter's results. Ken Lewis, our CFO, is here with me as usual to discuss our financials, and we also have Rich Byrne, President of Benefit Street Partners, available to address any questions on the alternative credit market as we're set to close on the acquisition this Friday. Market volatility clearly impacted our financial results this quarter. In fact, the net effect of the mark-to-market which is predominantly unrealized losses and other income, was more than $83 million this quarter. Fortunately, this environment has been more conducive to the success of value-oriented investment strategies, including many of ours. We are pleased to see our relative performance continue to improve, with net sales improving notably in several of our flagship strategies this month. Lastly, we remained active with our capital management program and returned approximately $460 million to shareholders through repurchases and dividends in the quarter. We'd now like to welcome any questions that you have.