Investment consulting
Our investment consulting group is dedicated to helping you enhance your investment management—through one-on-one consultations, educational programs, and our proprietary market dashboard.
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We bring institutional best practices to your investment portfolio
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Our consultations are product agnostic
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We take a consultative approach to solving your investment challenges
Your investment approach deserves a closer look: Is it definable, defendable, and repeatable?
When we engage with you, we’ll help you define your process and analyze your decision-making, which can produce better outcomes for your clients.
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Process
Is it based on institutional best practices?
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Decision-making
Does it help or hurt your process?
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Align asset allocation with model portfolio objectives
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Incorporate macro/micro analysis and expectations
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Evaluate investment vehicles and managers
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Stress test and optimize portfolios
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Correlation analysis
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Downside equity market risk
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Interest-rate risk
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Potential benefits of alternatives
Our team evaluates portfolios using sophisticated tools, such as comparative model analysis.
Source: John Hancock Investment Management. Data covers period from January 2, 2014, to March 31, 2022. Not indicative of any product or portfolio. For illustrative purposes only.
Important disclosures
Standard deviation is a statistical measure of the historic volatility of a portfolio. It measures the fluctuation of a fund's periodic returns from the mean or average. The larger the deviation, the larger the standard deviation and the higher the risk. The S&P 500 Index tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. The MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) tracks the performance of publicly traded large- and mid-cap stocks of companies in both developed and emerging markets. The Dow Jones Conservative Portfolio Index tracks asset allocation strategists who are willing to take 20% of the risk of the global securities market. The Dow Jones Moderately Conservative Portfolio Index tracks asset allocation strategists who are willing to take 40% of the risk of the global securities market. The Dow Jones Moderate Portfolio Index tracks asset allocation strategists who are willing to take 60% of the risk of the global securities market. The Dow Jones Moderately Aggressive Portfolio Index tracks asset allocation strategists who are willing to take 80% of the risk of the global securities market. The Dow Jones Aggressive Portfolio Index tracks asset allocation strategists who are willing to take 100% of the risk of the global securities market. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Corporate Index is a broad-based benchmark that tracks the investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bond market. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
A three-step process in partnership
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1 Initial assessment
First, your dedicated portfolio consultant will take inventory of your investment objectives and examine the risks and prospective returns of the equity, bond, and alternative assets in your model portfolio.
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2 Portfolio analysis and stress testing
Next, we'll help develop your Performance Blueprint—a custom set of characteristics and expectations for your model portfolio’s behavior across a range of market environments.
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3 Collaborative consultation
Finally, we’ll interpret the results together and review a range of potential options, exploring the practical implications of your model portfolio decisions, revisiting them over time as needed.
Our veteran team of consultant analysts will tailor the engagement to fit your needs
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DECISION TRAP
Trial and error
Issue:
Low conviction in process leads to “trial and error” implementation -
BEST PRACTICE
Be grounded
Solution:
Create an investment “philosophy” statement
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DECISION TRAP
Information overload
Issue:
Information sources distract more than inform
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BEST PRACTICE
Be focused
Solution:
Build a market dashboard to separate “signals” from “noise”
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DECISION TRAP
Pattern-seeking
Issue:
Inattention to market cycles can lead to performance chasing -
BEST PRACTICE
Be disciplined
Solution:
Apply base rates to identify attractive entry points
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DECISION TRAP
Lazy thinking
Issue:
Individual and group biases lead to fast and “lazy thinking” -
BEST PRACTICE
Be skeptical
Solution:
Employ counter intuition to address “groupthink” and “lazy thinking”
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DECISION TRAP
Recall
Issue:
Poor recall leads to a focus on “score carding” -
BEST PRACTICE
Be thorough
Solution:
Design a feedback loop to promote learning and process improvement
Data you can use
Market dashboard
Equity indicators
Chart legend
Arrows indicate how a particular indicator is trending. Material changes are denoted with up or down arrows, while non-material changes are accompanied by a lateral arrow.
The John Hancock Investment Consulting Group provides monthly commentary on each indicator to help financial professionals navigate current market conditions.
For each of four equity market indicators (spreads, volatility, valuations, and U.S. dollar), we show the historical range of values, from the 5th to the 95th percentile of average monthly outcomes. The dark blue current value box indicates the most recent average monthly value for each indicator.
Unless noted otherwise, data in charts for spreads, volatility, valuations, and U.S. dollar uses a start date of April 30, 2002.
Comments on April 2022 data
Volatility reversed course during April and moved steadily higher throughout the month with the VIX finishing April above 33. Not surprisingly, the broader market declined over 8.7% for the month and the trend of large intra-day price swings continues.
Fixed-income indicators
Chart legend
Arrows indicate how a particular indicator is trending. Material changes are denoted with up or down arrows, while non-material changes are accompanied by a lateral arrow.
The John Hancock Investment Consulting Group provides monthly commentary on each indicator to help advisors navigate current market conditions.
For each of three fixed-income market indicators (curve, policy, and inflation), we show the historical range of values, from the 5th to the 95th percentile of average monthly outcomes. The dark blue current value box indicates the most recent average monthly value for each indicator.
Unless noted otherwise, data in charts for spreads, volatility, valuations, and U.S. dollar uses a start date of April 30, 2002.
Comments on April 2022 data
The 10-year/2-year Treasury curve remains flat with no term premium in between. This has increased investor focus on the prospect of curve inversion and Fed actions pushing the economy into recession. The 10-year/3-month curve remains positive but should flatten, as the Fed is expected to continue raising short-term rates.
Economic indicators
Chart legend
Arrows indicate how a particular indicator is trending. Material changes are denoted with up or down arrows, while non-material changes are accompanied by a lateral arrow.
The John Hancock Investment Consulting Group provides monthly commentary on each indicator to help advisors navigate current market conditions.
For each of three economic market indicators (leading economic indictors (LEI), oil, quarterly lending survey), we show the historical range of values, from the 5th to the 95th percentile of average monthly outcomes. The dark blue current value box indicates the most recent average monthly value for each indicator.
Unless noted otherwise, data in charts for spreads, volatility, valuations, and U.S. dollar uses a start date of April 30, 2002.
Comments on April 2022 data
Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) remain positive but indicate a slowing pace of economic growth over the next 6 months. The Commerce Department, however, reported that gross domestic product (GDP) declined 1.4% in the first quarter—its first quarterly decline since Covid-19 in the spring of 2020.
*Data for LEI, oil, and quarterly lending survey are presented with a start date of April 30, 2022.
Learn more
Financial professionals: Schedule a portfolio consultation or Decision Economics workshop.
Request a meeting with a John Hancock Investment Management investment consultant
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