John Hancock

John Hancock merged with the Manulife Financial Corporation in 2004. John Hancock is a large and diversified financial service company offering products in the areas of annuities, life insurance, college savings, mutual funds, 401k, fixed income products and long-term care.

John Hancock Product Reviews
Product Review of John Hancock Inflation Guard
The fact that this is an inflation-protected fixed annuity makes the product...
Product Review of John Hancock Inflation Guard
The Inflation Guard fixed annuity from John Hancock has a nice feature that...
Product Review of John Hancock Inflation Guard
All of the gold bugs and end-of-days crew can rest easy knowing that there is...
Products Offered


General Information
Websitehttp://www.johnhancock.com
TypeInsurance Company
Founded1862
OwnershipPublic
CountryUSA
Contact Information
Address
Portsmouth, NH 03802-9505
Phone800-344-1029
Fax

Information & Articles about John Hancock

A very good article in Forbes magazine discusses the many downsides of using group annuity contracts as a wrapper for 401k plans.

This is not to be confused with 401k or defined contribution plans that offer  an annuity option within their plans or an annuity option outside of the plans to participants who are retiring or leaving the company. 

In fact, most of the group annuity wrappers provide no ability to annuitize.

The practice is especially common among 401k plans offered by smaller employers.

There are tax benefits for the insurance companies providing the products, but very few benefits for the plan participants.

Companies offering such products include Axa Equitable, John Hancock and Lincoln Financial.  Some companies such as New York Life refuse to offer group annuity products.

Very high fees and surrender charges are among the negatives that accompany this approach to offering a 401k plan.

Source: Forbes

Full Story

7,067 reads

Canadian insurer Manulife Financial is under investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission for failing to disclose certain obligations related to its variable annuity products.

Manulife's stock price has been under pressure and the company had to draw down a $3 billon loan.

Manulife, the parent of John Hancock, has reported billion dollar earnings losses in its two most recent quarters.

The company is suffering from the decision not to hedge effectively within its variable annuity products and living benefit guarantees.

Source: The Star

Full Story

3,757 reads

Barclays and other large asset managers roll-out sophisticated defined contribution plans that have annuity options built into the plans.  Employers, however, have been slow to adopt the new programs.

If you're approaching retirement right now, there's no easy fix for your portfolio. But if you are in midcareer, you may soon have a chance to structure your 401(k) in a much different way. A dozen or so asset managers and insurers, including AllianceBernstein, AXA, Barclays Global Investors, John Hancock, MetLife, and Prudential, are designing a new breed of retirement instrument that combines elements of pensions and 401(k)s. These products—call them hybrid 401(k)s—have begun slowly rolling out. And while they differ in structure, all combine annuities—essentially, insurance contracts that provide periodic income payments—with an investment portfolio.

Source: Business Week

Full Story

2,711 reads

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