TORONTO, Nov. 26, 2015 /CNW/ - Senior Portfolio Manager Dan Janis and the Manulife Asset Management Strategic Income Team were named Fixed Income Manager of the Year at the 2015 Morningstar Award ceremony held November 25.

The team, which manages five funds and one pool available to Canadian retail investors, was recognized for its strong global fixed income capabilities and its consistent adherence to a disciplined investment approach. The team manages C$28.1 B globally as of September 30, 2015. In addition to Mr. Janis, the leadership team includes Senior Portfolio Managers Tom Goggins and Kisoo Park.

"It's a well-deserved award for an exceptional team" said Derek Saliba, Assistant Vice President, Mutual Fund Product, Manulife Investments. "The team has deep portfolio management and research experience. Its lead managers average nearly 30 years of experience between them. With team members in North America, Asia and Europe they manage their strategies 24 hours a day, six days a week, which enables them to cover every major bond market sector domestically and globally. Their diligence and investment philosophy, process and performance has led to great success. We congratulate them on their efforts and their commitment to our clients."

The team employs an active fixed income management approach which dynamically allocates assets across multiple countries, sectors and currencies. Their top-down, bottom-up sector rotation style uses a global universe of securities. They analyze a broad range of opportunities including government bonds, investment grade high yield corporate bonds and other fixed income asset classes. The strategy employs active currency management and each sector is evaluated for yield/return, quality and stability.

The team manages the following funds:

Manulife Strategic Income Fund
The Fund employs a tactical asset allocation across multiple fixed income sectors including global government bonds, investment grade and high yield corporate bonds. In addition, a dynamic currency management strategy is employed to help the Fund benefit and mitigate currency fluctuations.

Manulife U.S. Dollar Strategic Income Fund
The Fund follows the same investing mandate as Manulife Strategic Income Fund but is geared towards those looking to invest U.S. dollars. Investors can invest in the fund with its Net Asset Value (NAV), income and year-end distributions (if any) in U.S. dollars with no currency calculations.

Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Fund
The Fund offers exposure to a diversified portfolio primarily of dividend paying U.S. equity securities and global multi-sector fixed income. The Strategic Income Team is the lead manager of the fixed income component and the active currency management strategy.

Manulife U.S. Dollar Strategic Balanced Yield Fund
The Fund follows the same investing mandate as Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Fund but is geared towards those looking to invest U.S. dollars. Investors can invest in the fund with its Net Asset Value (NAV), income and year-end distributions (if any) in U.S. dollars with no currency calculations.

Manulife Strategic Investment Grade Global Bond Fund
The Fund employs a tactical asset allocation across multiple fixed income sectors including global government bonds, investment grade corporate and emerging markets bonds. In addition, a dynamic currency management strategy is employed to help the Fund benefit and mitigate currency fluctuations.

Manulife Global Fixed Income Private Trust
The Pool employs a tactical asset allocation across multiple fixed income sectors including global government bonds, investment grade and high yield corporate bonds. In addition, a dynamic currency management strategy helps the pool benefit and be protected from currency fluctuations.

Performance as at October 31, 2015

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.

¹Manulife Strategic Income Fund
The Star Ratings as of October 31, 2015  for the Funds shown and the number of funds within their categories for each period are: Manulife Strategic Income Fund within the High Yield Fixed Income category: 1 year period, 4 stars & 410 funds, 3 year period, 4 stars & 239 funds & 5 year period, 4 stars & 110 funds.

²Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Fund
The Star Ratings as of October 31, 2015 for the Funds shown and the number of funds within their categories for each period are: Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Fund within the Global Neutral Balanced category: 1 year period, 4 stars & 1,055 funds & 3 year period, 5 stars & 696 funds.

For more information, please contact Manulife Customer Service at 1-888-588-7999 or visit manulifemutualfunds.ca.

About Morningstar

Morningstar Fixed Income Manager of the Year award is selected by the Morningstar analysts' team and is based on the performance of the fund, the quality of the manager, investment process and investment team.

The Morningstar Rating, commonly referred to as the Star Rating, relates how a fund has performed on a risk-adjusted basis against its Morningstar category peers and is subject to change every month. Funds are ranked by their Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return scores with the top 10% of funds in a category receiving 5 stars, the top 22.5% receiving 4 stars; a fund in the middle 35% receiving 3 stars; and a fund in the bottom 22.5% receiving 2 stars. The Overall Star Rating for a fund is a weighted combination of its 3, 5 and 10 year ratings. Overall ratings are adjusted where a fund has less than 5 or 10 years of history. Please refer to www.morningstar.ca for greater detail on the calculation of the Star Ratings. © 2015 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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 September 30, 2015, assets under management for Manulife Asset Management were approximately C$393 billion (US$294 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 September 2015, we had $888 billion (US$663 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $23 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