One Fiduciary employee recalls a gathering in Brooklyn. "People were walking around the room with photos of their loved ones, asking 'Were you there on September 11? Did you see my husband/wife/child? If you did, can you tell me what they were doing?' And when those people finally connected with someone who had seen their loved one, you could see in their eyes how much it meant to them."

Employee Health and Welfare

Providing for the health and welfare of our employees was essential to the process of rebuilding following 9-11. In addition to the communications initiatives previously noted, several services were provided to employees in the weeks following the attacks, some of which are noted here:

• Employee and family gatherings were an important way of bringing everyone together in the absence of a permanent office.
• A support center was established at Pier 94 in Manhattan for Fiduciary employees and families of the victims, offering an additional place for people to meet, share information with other families, obtain updates on the company, and employee benefits information.
• Critical Incident Stress Debriefings were held at the disaster recovery and temporary office work sites from September 11 through November 2001.
• Leadership meetings were conducted for supervisors and managers, as well as ongoing roundtable discussions about how to manage during periods of transition, stress and uncertainty.
• Onsite counseling (individual and group) services were made available to assist employees through the emotional impact of the tragedy.

Memorial Fund

Within a week after September 11, Fiduciary and Franklin Templeton established the FT Fiduciary Trust Memorial Fund to begin providing for the financial needs of families of colleagues who had been lost. Franklin Templeton committed to match any contributions from employees or employee family members up to $2 million. The fund has raised over $5 million and has distributed more than $40,000 to each family or estate. One generous business partner donated its entire day's worth of trading commissions, resulting in a contribution to the memorial fund in excess of $700,000.

Family Health and Welfare Benefits

Fiduciary Trust and Franklin Templeton also combined forces to provide financial support to families of the victims. Determining how to best accomplish that was one of the greatest challenges Fiduciary had ever faced. From the start, the company committed to providing families with as much financial assistance as possible, as quickly as possible, so they could use the money as they saw fit.

Fiduciary and its benefits providers were able to give families substantial support, including company-paid life insurance and business travel accident insurance, extended salary and health care benefits, accelerated vesting of cash retention bonuses, company severance payments and additional payments to those with minor children. The company has also provided a dedicated human resources consultant, as well as counseling and referral sources, to each family.

Many families called or wrote Fiduciary to thank the company for its kindness and generosity, expressing particular gratitude to employees who helped them personally during the early days.

Fundraising Events

Fiduciary Trust and Franklin Templeton employees also took it upon themselves to find other ways of providing support to families of the victims.

Memorial "Run/Walk" Gatherings
In October 2001, Franklin Templeton's St. Petersburg office held a 5k race to raise money for the FT Fiduciary Trust Memorial fund. In September 2002, San Mateo employees sponsored a similar run/walk in honor of September 11 victims. The following moth, more than 220 people braved cold, rainy weather to participate in Fiduciary Trust's Memorial Fun Run/Walk at Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

Funds raised for famililies
Thanks to a generous two-for-one contribution match from Franklin Templeton, the Fiduciary Trust event raised more than $60,000 for the Memorial Fund, in addition to the $80,000 raised for the Memorial Fund at the San Mateo event. More than 75 corporate sponsors supported the Fiduciary Trust event, and contributions were received from business partners as well as employees, their families and friends.

Client Loyalty and Support

Fiduciary Trust and Franklin Templeton employees have many stories about acts of kindness and generosity from clients, vendors and friends. People called to offer their sympathy and to ask about the well-being of employees. They offered office space and people to staff functions that had suffered significant losses. They sent letters and food and made generous contributions to the Memorial Fund. But as time passed, Fiduciary had to demonstrate that we were fully capable of providing the service our clients had come to expect.

One Client's Gesture of Support
A number of Fiduciary employees recall the story of one client, an elderly woman in the New York area who offered to drive out to the disaster recovery facility in the middle of the night to bring food or other needed items to the disaster recovery site. This act of kindness said a great deal about the depth of the relationships Fiduciary Trust had developed with its clients over the years.