Manulife Mutual Funds is making changes to its mutual fund lineup, merging fifteen funds, changing a portfolio manager, as well as altering a fund name and risk ratings.

Manulife announced the changes on July 24 and indicated that the mergers were the result of changes made to the Income Tax Act last year which put an end to the practice of using forward agreements to transform fully taxable income into capital gains.

On or about October 24, 2014:

  • Manulife Global Opportunities Balanced Fund will be merged into the Manulife Global Strategic Balanced Yield Fund
  • Manulife Global Opportunities Class will be merged into the Manulife Global Dividend Class
  • Manulife International Value Equity Class will be merged into the Manulife International Value Equity Fund
  • Manulife Preferred Income Fund will be merged into the Manulife Preferred Income Class

  • On or about November 7, 2014:
  • Manulife Strategic Income Class will be merged into the Manulife Strategic Income Fund
  • Manulife Yield Opportunities Class will be merged into the Manulife Yield Opportunities Fund
  • Manulife Floating Rate Income Class will be merged into the Manulife Floating Rate Income Fund
  • Manulife Structured Bond Class will be merged into the Manulife Canadian Conservative Balanced Fund
  • Manulife Corporate Bond Class will be merged into the Manulife Corporate Bond Fund
  • Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Class will be merged into the Manulife Strategic Balanced Yield Fund
  • Manulife U.S. Balanced Private Pool (formerly Manulife Balanced Private Pool) will be merged into the Manulife U.S. Balanced Private Trust (formerly Manulife Balanced Private Trust)
  • Manulife Balanced Income Private Pool will be merged into the Manulife Balanced Income Private Trust
  • Manulife Global Fixed Income Private Pool will be merged into the Manulife Global Fixed Income Private Trust
  • Manulife Canadian Fixed Income Private Pool will be merged into the Manulife Canadian Fixed Income Private Trust
  • Manulife Corporate Fixed Income Private Pool will be merged into the Manulife Corporate Fixed Income Private Trust
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    In addition to the mergers, Manulife also announced that on or about August 1 Terry Carr, senior managing director and head of Canadian fixed income at Manulife Asset Management, will become the lead portfolio manager for the Manulife Balanced Income Private Trust, replacing the Portfolio Solutions Group. The fund's investment strategy will be changed to enable Mr. Carr to use an actively managed strategy to allocate resources across different Canadian and/or global fixed income and equity asset classes.

    Also effective on or about August 1, the Manulife Global Dividend Income Fund will have its name changed to Manulife Global All Cap Focused Fund. Manulife says the name change “more closely reflects the investment strategy of the fund”. Finally, on August 1 the the risk ratings of Manulife Global Real Estate Fund and Manulife Global Real Estate Class will be adjusted from "high" to "medium to high".

    More detailed information about all the changes is available at manulifemutualfunds.ca