Franklin’s Johnson Cleans Up Wamco After Leech Guilty Plea (1)

For decades, the adage has hung over Jenny Johnson, scion of the $1.8 trillion Franklin Templeton fund dynasty.

“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” the saying goes, describing the cyclical loss of family wealth. It’s a line, by Johnson’s own account, that her billionaire clan often invokes.

Jenny Johnson is that third generation — the one that supposedly fritters away the business founded and built by the first two. Nowadays, she’s out to prove the old maxim wrong at Franklin Templeton, the business her grandfather established 79 years ago.

Johnson, 61, started out working in the mailroom as ...