o 116*SA1
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SHARE CLASS REDESIGNATION
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1999
Class A - Formerly Class I
Class B - New Share Class
Class C - Formerly Class II
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SUPPLEMENT DATED APRIL 1, 1999
TO THE STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OF
FRANKLIN FEDERAL TAX-FREE INCOME FUND
DATED SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
The Statement of Additional Information is amended as follows:
I. As of January 1, 1999, the fund offers three classes of shares: Class A,
Class B and Class C. Before January 1, 1999, Class A shares were designated
Class I and Class C shares were designated Class II. All references in the
Statement of Additional Information to Class I shares are replaced with Class A,
and all references to Class II shares are replaced with Class C.
II. The following is added to the "Officers and "Directors" section:
As of November 25, 1998, the officers and Board members, as a group, owned of
record and beneficially the following shares of the fund: approximately 68 Class
A shares, or less than 1% of the total outstanding Class A shares of the fund.
III. The first sentence in the section "Additional Information on Exchanging
Shares," found under "How Do I Buy, Sell and Exchange Shares?," is replaced with
the following:
If you request the exchange of the total value of your account, declared but
unpaid income dividends and capital gain distributions will be reinvested in the
fund and exchanged into the new fund at Net Asset Value when paid.
IV. The following is added to the section "Additional Information on Selling
Shares," found under "How Do I Buy, Sell and Exchange Shares?":
The contingent deferred sales charge will generally be waived for redemptions of
Class A shares by investors who purchased $1 million or more without an initial
sales charge if the Securities Dealer of record waived it commission in
connection with the purchase.
V. In the section "The Rule 12b-1 Plans," found under "The Fund's Underwriter,"
(a) the first sentence is replaced with the following:
Each class has a separate distribution or "Rule 12b-1" plan that was adopted
pursuant to Rule 12b-1 of the 1940 Act.
(b) the following paragraphs are added after the section "The Class I Plan":
THE CLASS B PLAN. Under the Class B plan, the fund pays Distributors up to 0.50%
per year of the class' average daily net assets, payable quarterly, to pay
Distributors or others for providing distribution and related services and
bearing certain expenses. All distribution expenses over this amount will be
borne by those who have incurred them. The fund may also pay a servicing fee of
up to 0.15% per year of the class' average daily net assets, payable quarterly.
This fee may be used to pay Securities Dealers or others for, among other
things, helping to establish and maintain customer accounts and records, helping
with requests to buy and sell shares, receiving and answering correspondence,
monitoring dividend payments from the fund on behalf of customers, and similar
servicing and account maintenance activities.
The expenses relating to the Class B plan are also used to pay Distributors for
advancing the commission costs to Securities Dealers with respect to the initial
sale of Class B shares. Further, the expenses relating to the Class B plan may
be used by Distributors to pay third party financing entities that have provided
financing to Distributors in connection with advancing commission costs to
Securities Dealers.
(c) and the section "The Class I and Class II Plans" is renamed "The Class A, B
and C Plans."
VI. Under "Miscellaneous Information,"
(a) the seventh paragraph is replaced with the following:
The fund offers three classes of shares: Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund,
Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund Series, Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income
Fund - Class A; Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund, Franklin Federal Tax-Free
Income Fund Series, Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund - Class B; and
Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund, Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund
Series, Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund - Class C.
(b) and the following is added:
The Information Services & Technology division of Resources established a Year
2000 Project Team in 1996. This team has already begun making necessary software
changes to help the computer systems that service the fund and its shareholders
to be Year 2000 compliant. After completing these modifications, comprehensive
tests are conducted in one of Resources' U.S. test labs to verify their
effectiveness. Resources continues to seek reasonable assurances from all major
hardware, software or data-services suppliers that they will be Year 2000
compliant on a timely basis. Resources is also beginning to develop a
contingency plan, including identification of those mission critical systems for
which it is practical to develop a contingency plan. However, in an operation as
complex and geographically distributed as Resources' business, the alternatives
to use of normal systems, especially mission critical systems, or supplies of
electricity or long distance voice and data lines are limited.
VII. In the "Useful Terms and Definitions" section, the definitions of "Class I
and Class II" and "Offering Price" are replaced with the following:
CLASS A, CLASS B AND CLASS C - The fund offers three classes of shares,
designated "Class A," "Class B" and "Class C." The three classes have
proportionate interests in the fund's portfolio. They differ, however, primarily
in their sales charge structures and Rule 12b-1 plans.
OFFERING PRICE - The public offering price is based on the Net Asset Value per
share of the class and includes the front-end sales charge. The maximum
front-end sales charge is 4.25% for Class A and 1% for Class C. There is no
front-end sales charge for Class B. We calculate the offering price to two
decimal places using standard rounding criteria.
Please keep this supplement for future reference.