Great Gray, Manulife John Hancock Partner on Target-Date CITs with Private Market Exposure

Manulife John Hancock Retirement and Great Gray Trust Co. LLC announced Monday a proposed suite of target-date collective investment trusts with exposure to private market investments.

The suite, Lifetime Blend+, is designed to combine public markets and stable value funds with private equity, private infrastructure and private real estate. It is expected to allocate up to 20% to private markets, with the remainder of the portfolio allocated to Manulife John Hanock-affiliated CITs and stable value funds.

“As life expectancy increases and retirement becomes a longer and more complex phase of life, participants need investment solutions built not only to reach retirement, but to help sustain them through it,” said Wayne Park, CEO of Manulife John Hancock, in a statement.

Great Gray is expected to serve as the trustee for Lifetime Blend+, providing the trust structure, fiduciary oversight and operational infrastructure for the suite.

“Private assets have to sit inside a vehicle that values daily, trades on recordkeeping platforms, and meets fiduciary standards,” said Rob Barnett, president and CEO of Great Gray Group, the parent company of Great Gray, in a statement. “This collaboration will allow participants and plan sponsors to maintain the familiar experience of selecting a target-date fund with even broader access to diversified investment capabilities.”

The suite is powered by Manulife Investment Management’s Lifetime Through Glidepath strategy, developed by the firm’s multi-asset solutions team. The team’s modeling approach evaluates the potential role of private market investments within Lifetime Blend+ as part of the strategy’s broader long-term investment approach.

The portfolio design uses Manulife Investment Management’s in-house real estate team and credit capabilities. Apollo Global Management is expected to provide the private equity exposure, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and StepStone Group L.P. are managing the infrastructure investments, and Townsend Holdings LLC will provide real estate investment management.

“For decades, institutional retirement investors have leveraged private markets to diversify portfolios and pursue stronger long-term returns,” said Taylor Benson, StepStone’s managing director and head of U.S. defined contribution, in a statement. “A private infrastructure allocation in the target date fund offers a compelling opportunity to improve outcomes for retirement savers given its non-correlation to public markets, potential for durable cash flows, inflation resilience and exposure to long-term growth trends across energy, digital infrastructure and other essential services.”

Manulife John Hancock is the latest among investment firms that have announced launches of CITs with allocations to private market investments in the last few months.

In October, SEI Investments Co. announced it will create several CITs, trusteed by SEI Trust Co., offering exposure to The Carlyle Group Inc.’s private market strategies on retirement platform Basic Capital Group Inc. From late spring into summer, Constitution Capital Partners, Principal Financial Group, WTW, Voya and PGIM were among other firms adding to the trend.

Manulife John Hancock Retirement is the U.S. retirement business of Manulife Investment Management. As of Sept. 30, 2026, Manulife John Hancock Retirement serviced more than 56,000 retirement plans with more than 3.3 million active participants and more than $278 billion in assets under management and advisement.