John Hancock Investment Management implements expense reductions providing additional value to investors

BOSTON, August 29, 2019—John Hancock Investment Management, a company of Manulife Investment Management, today announced expense reductions on additional funds, representing a combination of direct management fee cuts, contractual expense cap reductions, and new breakpoints primarily sourced through growing economies of scale, providing additional value to shareholders. Expense reductions of up to 7 basis points, vary by fund and class, and provide immediate cost savings to shareholders. The reductions decrease these funds’ fees by an average of 5.25 basis points.

The funds affected are John Hancock Investment Grade Bond Fund, John Hancock Disciplined Value International Fund, John Hancock New Opportunities Fund1, and John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core Fund and were made effective on July 1, 2019. Front-end sales charges on Class A shares of both John Hancock Balanced Fund and John Hancock Multimanager Lifestyle Portfolios were also reduced effective August 1, 2019.

This is the second announcement made this year by John Hancock Investment Management regarding expense reductions. These fee reductions for John Hancock Multifactor Sector ETF suite, John Hancock Floating Rate Income Fund, and John Hancock Small Cap Value Fund were made effective on January 1, 2019. They are consistent with John Hancock’s approach to building a multimanager network of specialized asset managers, through a rigorous investment oversight and due diligence process, to offer the best choices to shareholders.

“Our shareholders are looking for the best place to invest, and regardless of how an investor implements our funds, comparing funds and fees is a part of the process to build a portfolio that suits an investor’s risk-and-return profile,” said Andrew G. Arnott, president and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management and head of Wealth and Asset Management at Manulife Investment Management, United States and Europe. “We continue to reduce fees across our offering so investors may find even more value when making their investment decisions.”

For John Hancock mutual funds affected by fee reductions, the following table lists total annual fund expenses as they applied previously either to Class A or Class I shares compared with the new expense levels. The funds may also offer additional share classes.

The following table outlines John Hancock funds affected by Class A front-end sales charge reduction.

One hundred basis points equals one percent.

Additional information on these expense reductions, including details about the impact on other fund share classes, can be found in the funds’ latest prospectuses.

To find more information about John Hancock Investment Management, and to compare these funds with others in their categories, please visit: https://www.jhinvestments.com/login

About John Hancock Investment Management

John Hancock has helped individuals and institutions build and protect wealth since 1862. Today, we're one of the strongest and most-recognized financial brands. John Hancock Investment Management, a company of Manulife Investment Management, serves investors globally through a unique multimanager approach: We search the world to find proven portfolio teams with specialized expertise for every strategy we offer, then we apply robust investment oversight to ensure they continue to meet our uncompromising standards and serve the best interests of our shareholders. Our approach to asset management has led to a diverse set of investments deeply rooted in investor needs, along with strong risk-adjusted returns across asset classes.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than 150 years of financial stewardship to partner with clients across our institutional, retail, and retirement businesses globally. Our specialist approach to money management includes the highly differentiated strategies of our fixed-income, specialized equity, multi-asset solutions, and private markets teams—along with access to specialized, unaffiliated asset managers from around the world through our multimanager model. Our personalized, data-driven approach to retirement is focused on delivering financial wellness in retirement plans of all sizes to help plan participants and members retire with dignity.

Headquartered in Toronto, we operate as Manulife Investment Management throughout the world, with the exception of the United States, where the retail and retirement businesses operate as John Hancock Investment Management and John Hancock, respectively; and in Asia and Canada, where the retirement business operates as Manulife. Manulife Investment Management had C$844 billion (USD $645 billion) in assets under management and administration as of June 30, 20192. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit our website at manulifeinvestmentmgt.com.

2.Source: MFC financials. Global Wealth and Asset Management AUMA at June 30, 2019 was C$844 billion and includes C$191 billion of assets managed on behalf of other segments and C$136 billion of assets under administration.