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BOSTON, Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Retirement ("John Hancock") announced today it has signed an agreement with Morningstar Investment Management LLC to offer Morningstar's advisor managed account services to registered investment adviser (RIA) firms and their advisors for their retirement plan clients. Piloting in Q1 2020, John Hancock expects to roll out the offering more broadly during 2020.

With the Morningstar advisor managed account services, retirement plan participants receive personalized advice based on model portfolios aligned with the RIA firm's investment expertise and philosophies. This goals-based program considers, among many factors, each participant's age, salary, account balance, contribution rate, gender, risk capacity, as well as tax and plan rules to help them achieve their personal retirement goals. The advisor managed account program can also help RIA firms generate new business opportunities, while enabling advisors to offer scalable, personalized advice.

"This agreement represents another step in the evolution of our advice offering," said Patrick Murphy, CEO, John Hancock Retirement. "We're building on a 15-year relationship with Morningstar, which started with our single proprietary managed account product. Our new offering leverages the advisor community's expertise and ultimately enables us to help a greater number of participants reach their retirement goals."

The advisor managed account services leverage the technology, user interface, and asset allocation methodology behind Morningstar's existing managed accounts services. As of June 30, 2019, Morningstar's managed accounts and advice services were used by nearly 250,000 plans, more than 1.5 million participants and has $66.7 billion in assets under advisement and management. At the heart of these services, is Morningstar Investment Management's patented process that determines each participant's investment portfolio assignment based on their risk capacity and other factors.

"We built out our managed accounts offering with the mission to help more workers in America achieve a better retirement outcome," said Brock Johnson, president of retirement and workplace solutions at Morningstar Investment Management.  "We are thrilled to be working with John Hancock to help drive this mission as well as to ensure that advisors have a solution they can stand behind and will be able to use with some of the industry's leading recordkeepers."

Mr. Murphy further explained that the advisor managed account services work well with John Hancock's consultative and personalized approach to retirement plans. "We work closely with advisors and plan sponsors to understand individual needs and circumstances. This solution offers us the ability to provide a personally relevant investment experience for participants."

About Morningstar's Investment Management group  
Morningstar's Investment Management group is a leading provider of discretionary investment management and advisory services. Guided by seven investment principles, the group is committed to focusing on its mission to design portfolios that help investors reach their financial goals. The group's global investment management team works as one to apply its disciplined investment process to all strategies and portfolios, bringing together core capabilities in asset allocation, investment selection, and portfolio construction. This robust process integrates proprietary research and leading investment techniques. As of June 30, 2019, Morningstar's Investment Management group was responsible for about $220 billion* in assets under advisement and management across North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. 

In addition to advisory services, the group's investment professionals build and manage model portfolios for financial advisors in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and India to create strategies that incorporate a wide variety of investment objectives. 

About Morningstar, Inc.  
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with about $220 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2019. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc. 

About John Hancock Retirement
As of June 30, 2019, John Hancock serviced over 60,000 plans with over 2.8 million participants and over $170 billion in AUMA^* 

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. Manulife employs more than 34,000 employees serving almost 28 million customers worldwide. As of June 30, 2019, we had over $1.1 trillion (US$877 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $29.4 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.

About John Hancock and Manulife

John Hancock is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, 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 and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions.  Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were over CAD $1.1 trillion (US$877 billion) as of June 30, 2019. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Additional information about Manulife can be found at manulife.com.

One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports approximately 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans and college savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services, Boston, MA 02116.

NOT FDIC INSURED. MAY LOSE VALUE. NOT BANK GUARANTEED.

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SOURCE John Hancock Retirement