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TORONTO , Sept. 18, 2018 /CNW/ - Manulife
Investments announced today several changes to its mutual fund platform. In an effort to streamline and improve the experience
for investors and advisors, Manulife Investments will make the following changes:
- Modify the investment strategies of select funds
- Change the names of certain funds
- Close a fund to new purchases
- Re-open an existing capped fund to new purchases
Changes Effective on or about September 25th, 2018
- Manulife Global Equity Unconstrained Fund and Manulife Global Equity Unconstrained Class will change their names to
Manulife Global Franchise Fund and Manulife Global Franchise Class respectively.
Changes Effective on or about October 4th, 2018
- Manulife Strategic Dividend Bundle will undergo a strategy change by incorporating Manulife Dividend Income Plus Fund and
Manulife Global Unconstrained Bond Fund into the portfolio. While still maintaining a balanced fund profile of 60% Equities and
40% Fixed Income, the target underlying allocations will be the following:
-
- 40% Manulife Dividend Income Fund
- 20% Manulife Dividend Income Plus Fund
- 30% Manulife Strategic Income Fund
- 10% Manulife Global Unconstrained Bond Fund
"As we enter a market environment that may be characterized by more modest growth in equity markets, where interest
rates continue to rise, the addition of these strategies has the potential to improve the risk/reward characteristics of the
Manulife Strategic Dividend Bundle," said James Robertson, Head of Asset Allocation, Canada, Senior Portfolio Manager, Manulife Asset Management.
Changes Effective on or about October 31st, 2018
As announced August 2nd, 2018 sub-advisory responsibilities for Manulife
International Value
Equity Fund and Manulife International Focused Fund will transition from Manulife Asset
Management (US) LLC to Pictet Asset Management Limited effective on or about October
31st,
2018. In connection with this transition the following will also take place on this date:
- Investment strategies for both mandates will be aligned to reflect the investment approach used by Pictet Asset Management
Limited.
- Manulife International Focused Fund will be re-opened to new investors. The Fund was proactively capped to all new
purchases on January 25th, 2016 as part of a business decision related to the
integration with Standard Life.
- Manulife International Focused Fund will change its name to Manulife EAFE Equity Fund.
- Manulife International Value Equity Fund will be capped to all new purchases.
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 and its affiliates offer a variety of products and services
including exchange traded funds, segregated fund contracts, mutual funds and guaranteed interest contracts.
About Manulife
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions
easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the
United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management
solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2017, we had about 35,000 employees, 73,000 agents, and
thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 26 million customers. As of June 30, 2018, we
had over $1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) in assets under management
and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $27.6 billion in 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.
SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2018/18/c5229.html