John Hancock Retirement Plan Services Launches Education Resource Center Website for Plan Sponsors, Plan Consultants and Financial Representatives

BOSTON, Aug. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (RPS) has introduced the John Hancock Education Resource Center, a website and materials ordering portal, designed to help plan sponsors, plan consultants and financial representatives educate and motivate employees about planning for retirement.

"Plan sponsors want their employees to maximize the effectiveness of their retirement plan. For many years, John Hancock has been a leader in providing top quality retirement readiness education and tools and now we've made it even easier for plan sponsors to access the wealth of programs and materials we have," said Andrew Ross, senior vice president of Marketing, John Hancock RPS. "We've given all of our 47,000+ plan sponsors, as well as the plan consultants and financial representatives that we work with, an easy and intuitive way to deploy a comprehensive education and communications campaign to help employees get ready for retirement."

The site provides:

A Solution Center which helps the user leverage the appropriate education programs and communications to suit their specific needs
A wealth of employee paper based and electronic materials and tools on retirement, investing, the elements of retirement plans and planning for retirement
The ability to easily browse materials by life stage or by communications type
The option to choose various methods of communication such as brochures, online education tools, seminars, and posters
Instant access to the materials

"We've always offered great participant communications materials, but making them so easy for a plan sponsor, plan consultant or financial representative to use is just one of the ways we're invested in making plans work," said Art Creel, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing, John Hancock RPS. "Not only do we want to offer high quality plans, we want them to succeed on all levels – with good participation for the plan sponsor and retirement readiness for the employee."

About John Hancock Retirement Plan Services

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services is one of the largest providers of 401(k) plans across all plan sizes among banks, mutual funds and insurers, according to CFO Magazine. (CFO Magazine 2011 401(k) Providers Survey, for year-end 2010. Published in May 2011).

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial Corporation

John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 22 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and in most of Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, Manulife Financial Corporation offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were $481 billion (US$498 billion) as at June 30, 2011. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers a broad range of financial products and services, including life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at www.johnhancock.com.

Both John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York do business under certain instances using the John Hancock Retirement Plan Services name. Group annuity contracts and recordkeeping agreements are issued by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.), Boston, MA 02210 (not licensed in New York) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York, Valhalla, NY 10595. Product features and availability may differ by state.