The Markets November 16, 2006

John Hancock Enters the Lifecycle Market

John Hancock Retirement Services has added eight target date funds and a Retirement Portfolio to its roster of investment options for 401(k) plan participants.
Reported by

“People want simplicity,” Edward Eng, senior vice president of product development at John Hancock Retirement Services, told PLANSPONSOR.com in an interview. “All you have to do is give us a birth date and a retirement date.”

Eng explained that lifestyle funds are on the other end of the spectrum from those plans that require participants to choose the mutual funds in which they want to invest. Rather, lifecycle funds are for those that do not even want to consider the level of risk they can absorb – a level of investment sophisdication that is required for lifestyle funds.

The Toronto-based provider is riding on the success of its lifestyle funds to propel the take-up rate of its new target date offerings.

Currently John Hancock’s 401(k) business is split 50/50 between lifestyle participants and those choosing their own funds. With the opening of the new target date funds, the company is hoping to attract companies with participants who want to hand off all of the investment option responsibility, according to Eng.

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The Retirement Portfolio aims to provide more investment stability throughout retirement in volatile markets and offer a low probability of negative returns in any 12-month period, the company said.

The new target date funds are:

  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2045 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2040 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2035 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2030 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2025 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2020 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2015 Portfolio
  • John Hancock Lifecycle 2010 Portfolio.
Products November 16, 2006

State Street Unveils Two ETFs

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), on Tuesday announced that it had launched two international exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the American Stock Exchange.
Reported by

The ETFs include two Japan-focused funds based upon indices created by the Russell Investment Group and Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. The ETFs include:

  • streetTRACKS Russell/Nomura Prime JAPAN ETF, which focuses on the broad Japanese stock market and measures the performance ofJapan‘s 1,000 largest stocks. The index offers investors one of the most comprehensive benchmarks available for the Japanese market, SSgA claimed.
  • streetTRACKS Russell/Nomura Small Cap Japan ETF, which tracks the smallest 15% of companies in the Japanese stock market.

“These new ETFs add to our collection of international funds and enable investors to better access the Japanese market, a global economic powerhouse second in size only to theUSmarket,” said James Ross, senior managing director of State Street Global Advisors.

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State Street has approximately $110 billion in ETF assets under management. More information is at www.ssga.com.

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