John Hancock’s Duckworth On Their Manager Of Managers Approach

Jeff Duckworth, Head of Intermediary Distribution, John Hancock met with Julie Cooling, Founder & CEO, RIA Channel to discuss their manager of managers approach. Rather than managing every asset class in-house, John Hancock leverages best-of-breed managers across their family of funds and ETFs. “If there’s a need that the investor has, we scour the universe to find the best manager for that need,” says Duckworth.  For assistance with portfolio construction, John Hancock also offers advisors a full service team. In a volatile market environment, Duckworth explains that it can be especially important to lean on manager expertise. For the coming year, Duckworth suggests advisors take a look at alternative focused strategies like the Enduring Assets Fund and Seaport Long/ Short Fund sub-advised by Wellington.  On the fixed-income side, John Hancock provides several solutions. Recently, they replaced their floating rate manager with Bain Capital Credit.  In 2019, John Hancock has plans to expand their product offerings in the private equity space.