Manulife Financial Corp. will launch a new segregated fund platform in early October with three investment series, the company said Wednesday.

“We believe our go-forward products are simpler and effectively address our clients’ growing investment goals at various stages of their lives,” says Roy Firth, executive vice president, individual wealth management, Manulife Financial. “The result is a more streamlined suite of segregated fund products designed to meet different client needs — from investing and accumulating wealth to their retirement and estate planning for their families.”

New GIF Select program

Manulife will offer three investment series within a new GIF Select product platform effective October 5.

With a choice of over 75 funds, InvestmentPlus Series provides investors with the greatest range of investment choice available with management expense ratios competitively priced with most mutual funds, Manulife says. It offers investors basic protection and investment flexibility without the need of enhanced guarantees.

IncomePlus (version 2) is a new version of Manulife’s very popular IncomePlus Series. The new version has been designed to continue to meet the needs of investors in their pre- or early retirement years by offering guaranteed income for life, growth potential of the market and income protection from market downturns.

IncomePlus (version 2) will continue to offer resets, annual income bonuses and a 100% death benefit guarantee. In addition to these features, a new Joint Life Payout Option will also be available. In the event one spouse dies, this option can allow the surviving spouse to continue to receive income at the same level, uninterrupted for the balance of the surviving spouse’s life.

EstatePlus is a new estate-planning-focused series offering a 100% Death Benefit Guarantee with resets. This series will help investors who do not require income protection to protect their legacy for their beneficiaries, Manulife says.

The company adds that the new GIF Select platform will include seven new investment fund options, including fund bundles from two new fund partners: AIC and AGF.

In a continued effort to balance product risks/benefits and to simplify its overall product offering, Manulife says it will also close new sales to its original GIF Select, GIF and GIF encore contracts.

Original version of GIF Select IncomePlus (version 1)

With the introduction of a new GIF Select platform, including IncomePlus (version 2), the original version of GIF Select IncomePlus will close to new sales effective October 2. Existing contracts will remain in effect and the existing guarantees, core features and benefits remain intact.

Although no core product features will change for existing clients, it is still necessary to mitigate some risk and adjust costs accordingly, Firth says. Therefore IncomePlus fund fee levels will increase by 0.10% to partially off-set these higher product costs and their associated risk. These fund fee levels will apply to both IncomePlus version 1 and version 2.

GIF/GIF encore & former Maritime Life seg fund products

With the addition of the new EstatePlus Series to the GIF Select platform, GIF and GIF encore will close to new sales as well effective October 2. Existing contracts remain in effect, and the existing guarantees, core features and benefits remain unchanged.

GIF, GIF encore and all former Maritime Life segregated fund products, will be limited to annual supplementary deposits of $25,000 per contract per calendar year.

IE