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TORONTO, Nov. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - Manulife Investments today announced that three of its mutual funds, Manulife Dividend Income Fund (Advisor Series), Manulife Global Small Cap Balanced Fund (Advisor Series) and Manulife Monthly High Income Fund (Advisor Series) have been recognized at the prestigious 2015 Lipper Fund Awards, in Toronto on November 4.

These awards recognize funds and fund management firms for consistently strong risk-adjusted three, five and ten-year performance relative to their peers, based on Lipper's proprietary performance-based methodology.

The Manulife Dividend Income Fund and the Manulife Global Small Cap Balanced Fund won for the three-year performance period and the Manulife Monthly High Income Fund won for the five-year performance period.

"These awards underscore the talents of the teams who manage the funds," said Derek Saliba, Assistant Vice President, Mutual Fund Product, Manulife Investments. "Each team implements a distinct and proven process with conviction through various market environments, and continues to deliver for investors. We are proud of these teams and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition."

About the winning funds:

Manulife Dividend Income Fund (Advisor Series)
The Fund offers exposure to a portfolio of dividend-paying equities primarily from Canada and the U.S. The portfolio managers focus on selecting businesses that generate sustainable and predictable cash flows that may be returned to investors in the form of capital growth, tax efficient dividends or through share buybacks.

Manulife Global Small Cap Balanced Fund (Advisor Series)
The Fund* primarily invests in equity securities of global small-cap companies, with a focus on growing businesses with strong fundamentals. The fixed income portion employs a tactical allocation across multiple fixed income sectors, including global government bonds, investment grade and high yield corporate bonds.
*The fund has been capped to new sales since November 8, 2013.

Manulife Monthly High Income Fund (Advisor Series)
This Fund* offers exposure to a portfolio of primarily dividend-paying equity and investment grade fixed income securities. It has a proven investment strategy focused on buying businesses with sustainable and predictable cash flows, which has led to superior downside protection, strong long term outperformance and outstanding risk adjusted returns.
*The fund has been capped to new sales since August 28, 2015.

¹Manulife Dividend Income Fund was awarded the 2015 Lipper Fund Award in the Canadian Dividend & Income Equity category for the 3 year period ending July 31, 2015 out of a total of 82 funds. Performance for the fund for the period ended September 30, 2015 is 3.31% (1 year), 14.92% (3 years), N/A (5 years), N/A (10 years) and 13.07% (since inception on March 22, 2012).

²Manulife Global Small Cap Balanced Fund was awarded the 2015 Lipper Fund Award in the Global Equity Balanced category for the 3 year period ending July 31, 2015 out of a total of 125 funds.  Performance for the fund for the period ended September 30, 2015 is 18.61% (1 year), 18.97% (3 years), N/A (5 years), N/A (10 years) and 16.75% (since inception on August 19, 2011).

³Manulife Monthly High Income Fund was awarded the 2015 Lipper Fund Award in the Canadian Neutral Balanced category for the 5 year period ending July 31, 2015 out of a total of 89 funds.  Performance for the fund for the period ended September 30, 2015 is 4.35% (1 year), 10.80% (3 years), 8.30% (5 years), 5.53% (10 years) and 8.41% (since inception on September 30, 1997).

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns including changes in unit value and reinvestment of all distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Manulife Funds and Manulife Corporate Classes are managed by Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited.

For more information, please contact Manulife Customer Service at 1-888-333-3240 or visit manulifemutualfunds.ca.

About the Lipper Fund Awards

The Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, are part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence awarded by Lipper, Inc. and highlight funds that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers.  The Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Ratings for Consistent Return, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60 and 120 month periods.  The highest 20% of funds in each category are named Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return and receive a score of 5, the next 20% receive a score of 4, the middle 20% are scored 3, the next 20% are scored 2 and the lowest 20% are scored 1.  The highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return in each category wins the Lipper Fund Award.  Lipper Leader ratings change monthly.  For more information, see www.lipperweb.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper.

About Manulife Investments

Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, builds on 125 years of Manulife's wealth and investment management expertise in managing assets for Canadian investors. As one of Canada's leading integrated financial services providers, Manulife Investments offers a variety of products and services including segregated fund contracts, mutual funds, annuities and guaranteed interest contracts.

About Manulife Asset Management

Manulife Asset Management is the global asset management arm of Manulife, providing comprehensive asset management solutions for investors. This investment expertise extends across a broad range of public and private asset classes, as well as asset allocation solutions. As at June 30, 2015, assets under management for Manulife Asset Management were approximately C$390 billion (US$313 billion).

Manulife Asset Management's public markets units have investment expertise across a broad range of asset classes including public equity and fixed income, and asset allocation strategies.  Offices with full investment capabilities are located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. In addition, Manulife Asset Management has a joint venture asset management business in China, Manulife TEDA. The public markets units of Manulife Asset Management also provide investment management services to affiliates' retail clients through product offerings of Manulife and John Hancock. John Hancock Asset Management and Declaration Management and Research are units of Manulife Asset Management.

Additional information about Manulife Asset Management may be found at ManulifeAM.com.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group providing forward-thinking solutions to help people with their big financial decisions. We operate as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2014, we had 28,000 employees, 58,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving 20 million customers. At the end of June 2015, we had $883 billion (US$708 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $22 billion in benefits, interest and other payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. Follow Manulife on Twitter @ManulifeNews or visit www.manulife.com or www.johnhancock.com.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation