Don't blame an executive from Franklin Resources if she shares an overseas fantasy the next time you see her. Foreign lands have been good to the San Mateo, California-based fund firm over the past year.

This week the fund manager reported that it assets under management grew by $45 billion from April 2004 to April 2005. All counted it reported preliminary assets under management of $409.2 billion for the month ended April 30, 2005, compared to $412.1 billion in the preceding month and $343.8 billion in the same month a year ago.

Roughly three-quarters of that growth was in global and international assets. Assets in that category hit $161 billion in April, up more than $36 billion from $124 billion the year before.

Also gaining were assets in hybrid funds. Franklin reported $68.9 in hybrid assets at the end of April compared to $53.9 billion at the end of April in 2004.

Domestic assets grew to $70.9 billion from $63.8 billion the year before. Global fixed income assets grew to $17.1 billion from $13.4 billion while domestic taxable fixed income assets reached $32.5 billion from $30.6 a year ago.  

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