John Hancock Retirement Announces Reorganization

John Hancock Retirement, a business of Manulife Investment Management, announced a reorganization Thursday to combine its sales and services divisions and shuffle its senior leadership team.

The reorganization comes a little less than one year since Wayne Park was named CEO of the division, joining from a role as senior vice president of personal finance solutions at American Century Investments. The move is being made to support “market segments and better serve … key partners and customers,” as well as to further “participant success and retirement readiness,” according to the announcement.

With the move, Gary Tankersley, John Hancock’s current head of sales and distribution, will take on a new role as head of the core retirement services segment. Michelle Morey, currently head of service model transformation, will take a new role as head of the mid-to-large and Taft-Hartley retirement segment. The changes are effective February 15.

“The new model will help us better leverage the strengths we have in each market, and I am excited that Gary will be leading our Core segment business which has enormous potential for growth given SECURE 2.0 provisions and other opportunities in the market,” Park said in a statement.

Scott Francolini, vice president and head of strategic relationship management, will leave the firm effective March 31 after nine years at John Hancock and 30 in the wealth and asset management industry, according to the announcement. He oversaw strategic management for all segments of the business.

“We thank Scott for his many years of strong leadership and dedication to our plan sponsors, third party administrators, financial professionals and other partners,” Park said in a statement. “Scott spent nearly a decade successfully leading our efforts related to customer satisfaction, retention, and growth, working closely with Michelle for many of those years on these relationships.”

Tankersley has 29 years in the retirement industry and Morey 24, according to the announcement, and they intend to put that experience toward expanding “the company’s business while enhancing service to our current clients,” according to the announcement.

In a June 2023 interview with PLANADVISER, Park, who had been appointed in late March, noted the firm’s continued work with financial advisers who work with business owners on their retirement plans.

As of September 30, 2023, John Hancock was servicing more than 56,000 retirement plans, 3.2 million participants and $194 billion in assets under management and administration.