Manulife Mutual Funds announces simplified prospectus amendments

TORONTO, Nov. 5 /CNW/ - Subject to any required regulatory approval, Manulife Mutual Funds plans to change its low load sales charge purchase option, appoint a sub-advisor on its Simplicity managed portfolios, and increase the number of funds with U.S. dollar (USD) purchase options.

Low-load sales charge purchase option to change in 2011
Effective January 5, 2011, new purchases of Manulife Mutual Funds using the low-load sales charge purchase option will be subject to the following change to the redemption schedule outlined in the table below.

Management fees	No change
2% up front DSC sales commission	No change
Fund codes	No change
Trailer fees	No change
Schedule	Current low-load sales charge purchase option		Low-load sales charge purchase option effective January 5, 2011
	Year 1	3%	Year 1	3%
	Year 2	3%	Year 2	3%
	Year 3 and beyond	0%	Year 3	3%
			Year 4 and beyond	0%

Under the new redemption schedule, all low-load purchases made by investors on or after January 5, 2011 can be redeemed after three years at no charge. Under the current schedule purchases could be redeemed after two years at no charge.

Existing assets managed under the current low-load sales charge purchase option and all new sales completed prior to January 5, 2011 will remain under the current low-load sales charge purchase option outlined in the table above.

Sales commissions, trailer commissions, management fees and fund codes are not changing.

Sub-advisor appointment for Manulife Simplicity Portfolios
Effective on or about December 1, 2010, MFC Global Investment Management (Canada), a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited and the portfolio advisor of the Funds, will be retaining the services of MFC Global Investment Management (U.S.), LLC to act as a portfolio sub-advisor of each of Manulife Simplicity Conservative Portfolio, Manulife Simplicity Moderate Portfolio, Manulife Simplicity Income Portfolio, Manulife Simplicity Balanced Portfolio, Manulife Simplicity Global Balanced Portfolio, Manulife Simplicity Growth Portfolio and Manulife Simplicity Aggressive Portfolio.

Working with the portfolio advisor, the portfolio sub-advisor's team will bring significant additional asset allocation expertise to the funds. The team has an average of 26 years of experience, and currently oversees over $70 Billion (USD) in asset allocation mandates.

Additions to line-up of funds with USD Purchase Option
Effective January 26, 2011, Manulife Mutual Funds will enhance its line-up of funds that offer investors a USD purchase option, as outlined in the table below. The USD versions of these series of funds have the same management fees and management expense ratios as their Canadian dollar counterparts. Trading net asset value (NAV) of the USD versions will be determined in USD. The only difference with the CAD versions is the exchange rate. 

Fund	Advisor Series - USD Purchase Option	Series F - USD Purchase Option
Manulife Corporate Bond Fund	√	√
Manulife Diversified Investment Fund	√	√
Manulife Floating Rate Income Fund	√	√
Manulife Global Focused Class	Currently available	√
Manulife Global Opportunities Class	√	√
Manulife Global Opportunities Balanced Fund	Currently available	√
Manulife Leaders Opportunities Portfolio	√	√
Manulife Strategic Income Class	√	√
Manulife Strategic Income Fund	Currently available	√
Manulife U.S. Opportunities Class	Currently available	√
Manulife U.S. Opportunities Fund	Currently available	√
Manulife World Investment Class	√	√
Manulife Yield Opportunities Fund	√	√
Manulife Yield Opportunities Class	√	√

Additional information on these changes is available in the Amendment to the Manulife Mutual Funds' Simplified Prospectus. The prospectus is available online at manulifemutualfunds.ca, or www.sedar.com.

About Manulife Mutual Funds
Manulife Mutual Funds builds on over 120 years of Manulife Financial's wealth and investment management expertise to provide Canadian investors with a diverse portfolio of forward-thinking mutual fund products. Our award-winning¹ Portfolio Managers offer access to markets in Canada, United States and around the world, in a range of investment styles to help meet individual needs. Manulife Mutual Funds is a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited and part of Manulife Investments (the brand name describing certain Canadian subsidiaries and operating divisions of Manulife Financial Corporation that offers personal wealth management products and services in Canada).

About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group operating in 22 countries and territories worldwide. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We provide asset management services to institutional customers worldwide as well as reinsurance solutions, specializing in life and property and casualty retrocession. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$474 billion (US$460 billion) as at September 30, 2010. The Company operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia and primarily as John Hancock in the United States.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

¹ The Lipper Fund Awards are part of a global program of events, held in 21 countries, to acknowledge funds that have delivered consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The winners are selected using the Lipper Leader rating for consistent return.

For further information:

Media contact:
Tom Nunn
Manulife Financial
1-877-782-2363
[email protected]