John Hancock Investment Management made multimanager model portfolios managed by its affiliated asset manager, Manulife Investment Management, available on Envestnet's Fund Strategist (FSP) platform.
The models are "designed to fit investor objectives and risk tolerances while helping advisors and their clients by providing a diversified asset allocation portfolio supported by John Hancock's multimanager model," the company said in its announcement.
Two suites of Hancock portfolios are currently available on the Envestnet platform and are differentiated by underlying holdings: The John Hancock Multimanager Model Portfolios, made up mainly of actively managed holdings, and the John Hancock Active / Passive Model Portfolios, a hybrid suite of active mutual funds and primarily passive ETFs, Hancock said.
Each of the suites offer five risk tolerances levels: aggressive, growth, balanced, moderate and conservative, it noted.
There's been demand for the offerings, according to Bruce Picard, lead portfolio manager for the John Hancock Multimanager Model portfolio, who said in a statement that "both advisors and their clients are seeking more consistent and long-term portfolio returns, irrespective of risk tolerance."
Touchstone Investments to Merge Two Funds
Touchstone Investments plans to merge its Touchstone Credit Opportunities Fund into the Touchstone Credit Opportunities II Fund, the Western & Southern Financial Group's mutual fund company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Board of Trustees of the Target Trust approved the reorganization, subject to shareholder approval, the company said in a prospectus to shareholders. The merger of the two funds is "intended to eliminate the offering of multiple funds with the same investment goal and principal investment strategies and has the potential to provide efficiencies and economies of scale for the combined Fund," it said.
A special meeting of shareholders of Touchstone Credit Opportunities is scheduled to be held at the offices of the Target Trust in Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 26, to vote on the proposed merger. If approved, the reorganization is expected to be completed on or about Sept. 6, according to the company.
The Touchstone Credit Opportunities Fund had assets of $59.3 million as of June 30, while the Touchstone Credit Opportunities II Fund had assets of $57 million, according to the company's websites for each fund.
Mesirow Financial Launches ESG-Focused Small Cap Mutual Fund
Mesirow Financial introduced a Small Cap Value Sustainability Fund that the company said capitalizes on its U.S. Small Cap sustainable investment strategy while "addressing the increasing desire of institutional, corporate and individual investors to emphasize responsible investing within well-diversified portfolios."
The fund trades under the symbols MSVIX (for institutional class investors with a net exchange ratio of 0.75%) and MSVVX (investor class with a net exchange ratio of 1.00%), according to a fact sheet on the firm's website.
"With this strategy, we link environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors with our fundamental assessment of macro, sector and company-specific trends," Kathryn Vorisek, senior managing director and head of equity management at the company, said in a statement. "We believe that actively incorporating well-defined ESG factors can offer attractive investment potential – and a lower overall portfolio risk profile – while driving positive environmental and societal outcomes," she said.
