The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today reported that it issued a settled order against certain investment advisers and broker-dealers owned by Manulife Financial Corp. and John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., which merged in 2004.

The firms were charged with violating the federal securities laws from at least 2001 until as late as 2004 when the investment advisers failed to disclose their use of brokerage commissions to pay for their affiliated distributors’ marketing expenses concerning the sale of mutual fund and variable annuity products offered by related Manulife Financial and John Hancock entities.

The order censures each of the entities and requires each of them to cease-and-desist from committing or causing certain violations of federal securities laws and to undertake certain compliance reforms. As part of the settlement, the entities agreed to pay, in total, US$19,287,880.95 in disgorgement, which will be distributed to the affected funds and a $2 million penalty, which will be paid to the U.S. Treasury.

John Hancock Management, John Hancock Distributors, John Hancock Advisers and John Hancock Funds settled without admitting or denying the commission’s finding.