The reorganization was effective Friday. The fund is now available for sale to retail investors through their financial advisors. The value-oriented fund seeks maximum, long-term total return, consistent with reasonable risk to principal, by investing in common stocks of smaller companies.
Keith Hartstein, the president and chief executive officer of John Hancock Funds said the fund is “more value-oriented than our other small cap offerings and so presents a good complement to our lineup."
The Fund's portfolio will be managed on a day-to-day basis by Fiduciary Management Associates LLC, which is an employee-owned independent investment manager founded in 1980. FMA manages both equity and fixed income strategies for a diversified institutional client base including public, Taft-Hartley and corporate pension plans.
Hartstein said fund adoptions “continue to be a key element in our strategy as we've expanded our product line at John Hancock in recent years, and will continue to be important for us going forward.”
John Hancock Funds embarked on its fund adoption strategy in 2002. Its most recent transaction was the adoption of the four-star Robeco Boston Partners Large Cap Value Fund, which was relaunched as the John Hancock Disciplined Value Fund in January.
The Boston-based mutual fund business unit of