John Hancock Expands Asset Allocation Models

New offerings include target date fund (TDF) suites from T. Rowe Price and American Century, as well as additional target date and lifestyle portfolios from John Hancock.

Nearly 80% of participants served on the platform use an asset-allocation option, says Andrew Ross, senior vice president of market and product development for John Hancock Retirement Plan Services. He says the JH Select platform offers advisers and plan sponsors a way to construct investment lineups that meet the specific needs of their plans.

“Given the importance of asset-allocation portfolios, we are pleased that plan sponsors now have nine different asset-allocation offerings from which to choose,” he adds.

The new options are as follows:

• T. Rowe Price Retirement Funds – The fund series includes actively managed TDFs that maintain significant equity allocations based on proprietary allocation modeling and research. The asset allocations continue to shift for 30 years after the target retirement date and the underlying portfolios consist mainly of actively managed T. Rowe Price funds.

• American Century One Choice Target Date Portfolios – These funds provide broad asset class coverage and diversification through established strategies managed internally. The portfolios seek to mitigate volatility in retirement when market risk is most critical, and the underlying asset mix shifts as retirement nears.

• JH Retirement through Managed Portfolios 2010-2055 – This actively managed set of portfolios invests in passive underlying funds. Portfolios are designed to help support participants’ need for income through their retirement years.

• JH Lifestyle-Managed Portfolios – These portfolios offer participants broad diversification in a single actively managed fund, with passive, low-cost underlying investments.

• JH Lifestyle-Managed Volatility – The suite of five funds is designed with the objective of limiting losses and maintaining volatility within a target range during periods of high volatility.

The new options join the four existing asset allocation options already offered on the JH Signature platform, including existing “to” and “through” retirement target-date options, JH Lifestyle actively managed portfolios and the Guaranteed Income for Life Select portfolios.

All of the newly added asset allocation portfolios will qualify under the JH Fiduciary Standards Warranty program and are available to new and existing JH Signature plans effective immediately. More information is available at the John Hancock Retirement Plan Services website, here.