Leslie Whitney, an accredited investment fiduciary (AIF),
will lead the new office for FIA. Before joining the firm, Whitney worked as president
of Whitney Retirement Group, where she delivered customized advisory services
to retirement plan clients.
Whitney has over two decades of experience providing
investment advisory services to retirement plans in both the corporate and
tax-exempt markets, the firm says. She has worked in the retirement plan
departments for Unum and Oppenheimer Mutual Funds, and was a partner at
Atlantic Benefits.
In those roles, Whitney provided various consulting services
to clients on plan design, investment fund selection and monitoring, and
pension plan terminations. She also has experience conducting comprehensive
market reviews and benchmarking projects.
Fiduciary Investment Advisors is an employee-owned
investment consulting firm that works with fiduciary clients, including
retirement plan sponsors, non-profit endowments and foundations, and
municipalities.
As of February 1, for nearly all R6 shares (an institutional
share class that includes qualified 401(k) plans, endowments and foundations,
among others), the funds' adviser has agreed to contractually waive and/or
reimburse all class-specific expenses. This expense reduction has been in place
on a voluntary basis since January 1. As a result, fund expenses have
decreased, on average, by eight basis points, and some funds have decreased
expenses, up to 20 basis points.
The firm is reducing sales charges for Class A shares on 16
fixed-income funds, including the elimination of the front-end sales charges on
the John Hancock Floating Rate Income Fund and the John Hancock Short Duration
Credit Opportunities Fund for investments of $250,000 or more. John Hancock
Investments is also modifying the CDSC schedule for Class A shares of John
Hancock Floating Rate Income Fund and John Hancock Short Duration Credit
Opportunities Fund.
"We're pleased to open the New Year by continuing our
program of fund expense reductions, this time on nearly our entire fixed-income
fund lineup. These latest fee cuts will help put more of our shareholders'
investment dollars to work more quickly," says Andrew G. Arnott, president
and CEO.
For the John Hancock Floating Rate Fund, initial
investments between $250,000 and $499,999, and between $500,000 and $999,999,
which had 2% and 1.5% sales charges, respectively, will now have no sales
charge. Initial investments of $1 million or more will continue to carry no
sales charge. For investments of less than $100,000 sales charges will drop,
from 3% to 2.5%, and for investments between $100,000 to $249,999, sales charges will go from
2.5% to 2%.
The John Hancock Short Duration Credit Opportunities Fund
will see investments between $250,000 and $499,999 and between $500,000 and
$999,999, which had 2.75% and 2% sales charges, respectively, carry no sales
charge. Initial investments of $1 million or more continue to carry no sales
charge. For investments of less than $100,000 the sales charge will drop from 4.5%
to 2.5%, and for investments of between $100,000 to $249,999, the fee will drop
from 3.75% to 2%.
Fourteen other fixed-income funds will see charges for
initial investments up to $100,000 decrease from 4.5% to 4%. For investments
between $100,000 and $249,000 sales charges will drop from 3.75% to 3.50%.
Investments between $250,000 and $499,999 will now have a sales charge of
2.50%. Investments between $500,000 and $999,999 will continue to have a
sales charge of 2%, and investments of $1 million or more will continue to
carry no sales charge.
The funds with this new sales charge schedule are as
follows: John Hancock Bond Fund, John Hancock Core High Yield Fund, John
Hancock Emerging Markets Debt Fund, John Hancock Global Income Fund, John
Hancock Government Income Fund, John Hancock Focused High Yield Fund, John
Hancock Income Fund, John Hancock Investment Grade Bond Fund, John Hancock
Strategic Income Opportunities Fund, John Hancock California Tax-Free Income
Fund, John Hancock High Yield Municipal Bond Fund, John Hancock Massachusetts
Tax-Free Income Fund, John Hancock New York Tax-Free Income Fund, John Hancock
Tax-Free Bond Fund.
Purchases of Class A shares at net asset value where a front
end sales charge is not imposed are subject to a contingent deferred sales
charge (CDSC). Effective February 3, for John Hancock Floating Rate Income Fund
and John Hancock Short Duration Credit Opportunities Fund, the CDSC rate
imposed on Class A shares will be lowered from 1% to 0.50% for purchases of
$250,000 or more that are not subject to a front end sales charge.
Additionally, the period of time for which a CDSC may be collected will be
extended from 12 months to 18 months from the date of purchase. For the other
14 fixed-income funds, the CDSC remains 1% for purchases of Class A shares of
$1million or more that were not subject to a front end sales charge and are
sold within 12 months from the date of purchase.
Moreover, effective February 3, any exchanges
into Class A shares will remain subject to the original CDSC schedule
associated with the initial purchase of shares that are being exchanged.
For purposes of determining the holding period for calculating the CDSC, shares
will continue to age from their original purchase date.