John Hancock Establishes New Series of R Share Classes

Known as R6 shares, the class is available to all retirement plans and institutional non-retirement accounts (above $1 million). The R6 shares represent John Hancock Funds’ lowest-priced share class, according to a press release. Currently the class is available on the Frontier Trust (utilized by Ascensus), Matrix, and Mid-Atlantic Trust Company trading platforms with other platforms coming online in the near future.

“Demand for share classes with greater transparency and economy in our defined contribution-investment only business has increased significantly,” said Keith F. Hartstein, President & CEO, John Hancock Funds, in the announcement. “And so we created the R6 share class in response to Registered Investment Advisers and retirement plan sponsors who desire fund classes without 12b-1 fees or other administrative and service fees on many of our funds.”

John Hancock Funds now offering R6 shares include: John Hancock Alternative Asset Allocation Fund; John Hancock Disciplined Value and John Hancock Disciplined Value Mid Cap Funds; John Hancock Global Opportunities Fund; John Hancock Lifecycle 2010 – 2045 Portfolios; John Hancock Lifestyle Aggressive, Balanced, Conservative, Growth, and Moderate Portfolios; John Hancock Strategic Income; and John Hancock Strategic Income Opportunities Funds.

 For one year after the commencement of operations of Class R6 shares of the fund, certain existing investors of Class I shares who own a minimum of $250,000 of Class I shares of the fund, and do not require the fund or its affiliates to make any type of administrative payments, may exchange all of their Class I shares for Class R6 shares of the fund.

Class R6 shares are offered without any sales charge and are generally made available to the following types of investors if they also meet the minimum initial investment requirement for purchases of Class R6 shares:

• Qualified 401(a) plans including 401(k) plans, Keogh plans, profit-sharing pension plans, money purchase pension plans, target benefit plans, defined benefit pension plans, and Taft-Hartley multi-employer plans
• Endowment funds and foundations
• Any state, county or city, or its instrumentality, department, authority, or agency
• 457 plans, including 457(a) governmental entity plans and tax-exempt plans
• Accounts registered to insurance companies, trust companies, and bank trust departments
• Investment companies, both affiliated and not affiliated with the adviser
• Any entity that is considered a corporation for tax purposes, including corporate non-qualified deferred compensation plans of such corporations
• Fund trustees and other individuals who are affiliated with the fund and other John Hancock funds

For more information, visit www.jhfundsretirement.com or call 800-845-7175.