Manulife Investments announced Sept. 18 a number of changes to its mutual fund platform, which the company says are “an effort to streamline and improve the experience for investors and advisors.”

Among these changes, as of Sept. 25, the names of Manulife Global Equity Unconstrained Fund and Manulife Global Equity Unconstrained Class will be changed to Manulife Global Franchise Fund and Manulife Global Franchise Class respectively.

Strategy change

On Oct. 4, the strategy of Manulife Strategic Dividend Bundle will be changed by incorporating Manulife Dividend Income Plus Fund and Manulife Global Unconstrained Bond Fund into the portfolio. The fund will still maintain a balanced fund profile of 60 per cent equities and 40 per cent fixed income. However, the target underlying allocations will be: 40 per cent Manulife Dividend Income Fund; 20 per cent Manulife Dividend Income Plus Fund; 30 per cent Manulife Strategic Income Fund and 10 per cent Manulife Global Unconstrained Bond Fund.

As announced in early August, Manulife is making changes to the sub-advisory responsibilities for Manulife International Value. Effective Oct. 31, Equity Fund and Manulife International Focused Fund will transition from Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC to Pictet Asset Management Limited.

The company has announced that in connection with this transition, the investment strategies for both fund mandates will be aligned to reflect the investment approach used by Pictet Asset Management.

Fund to be re-opened

Also, the Manulife International Focused Fund will be re-opened to new investors. (the fund was capped to new purchases on Jan. 25, 2016). The name of the fund will be changed to Manulife EAFE Equity Fund.

Fund to be capped

The company also announced that Manulife International Value Equity Fund will be capped to all new purchases effective Oct. 31.