Manulife Mutual Funds Thursday announced the addition of three new mandates to its lineup of funds.

The new funds are: Manulife Investment Savings Fund; Manulife Canadian Balanced Growth Fund; and Manulife Mawer Global Equity Class.

“These additions provide Canadians with additional sources of diversification and access to top-ranked investment management,” said Jeff Ray, assistant vice president, mutual fund products.

Manulife Investment Savings Fund will provide investors with an alternative for their short-term investments. The fund leverages the firm’s relationship with Manulife Bank of Canada.

Equities will constitute 40-60% of Manulife Canadian Balanced Growth Fund with the balance in fixed income securities. The equities portion of the fund will be managed by MFC Global Investment Management’s Shauna Sexsmith, while Terry Carr will look after fixed income investments.

The equity portion of the fund’s assets will primarily be invested in a portfolio of Canadian securities based on the successful strategy used in the Manulife Canadian Equity Fund. The fixed-income portion of the fund may invest in Canadian and foreign government and corporate debt securities including high yield securities. The fund may also invest in securities of the Manulife Corporate Bond Fund.

Manulife Mawer Global Equity Class is sub-advised by Mawer Investment Management Ltd. tTis new global equity fund is an addition to the Manulife Mawer funds which were launched last year. The fund will be a concentrated portfolio of Mawer’s best equity ideas from around the world using the same successful investment strategy that is used for all of Mawer’s equity funds. This fund will be available for sale as of November 2.

In addition, Manulife Mutual Funds also announced other changes to the 2009 simplified prospectus renewal.

Dan Cole, vice president, MFC Global Investment Management (U.S.) LLC, will replace Rhonda Chang as the lead manager for Manulife U.S. Mid-Cap Fund. Cole has over 17 years investment experience, many of which were spent managing U.S. Mid-Cap mandates. Cole is further supported by portfolio managers/analysts Christopher O’Brien and Robert Shea.

Effective December 19, the following funds will be terminated as previously announced: Manulife Global Real Estate Fund, Manulife Global Tactical Fund, Manulife Real Return Strategy Fund and Manulife International Large Cap Fund. The funds were capped on June 19.

IE