John Hancock Retirement Plan Services Earns Top Rankings for Client Satisfaction in Industry Benchmark Survey

BOSTON, June 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (RPS) earned top rankings for its service from plan sponsors in an industry survey administered by Chatham Partners.

According to the survey, John Hancock RPS earned 43 'best-in-class' rankings from clients in a broad range of industries and sectors. These 43 categories span the entire retirement plan services spectrum, from overall impressions of the company to the quality of client account representatives, phone support, administrative services for plan sponsors and more.

In addition, among the entire group of industry peers, John Hancock RPS was the benchmark's 'top performer' in 12 separate categories, including:

• #1 for 'overall satisfaction'
• #1 for being 'easy to do business with'
• #1 for 'good value for the money'
• #1 for 'reputation as retirement provider'
• #1 for 'would highly recommend'
• #1 for 'works with your Third-Party Administrator (TPA) effectively'
• #1 for 'works with your advisor effectively'
• #1 for 'client account representatives'
• #1 for 'voice response system'
• #1 for '800-number phone representatives'
• #1 for 'participant statements
• #1 for plan sponsor administrative services

"The results are quite remarkable," said Joshua Dietch, Managing Director of Chatham Partners. "It clearly exemplifies the importance of keeping focus on the activities that benefit its clients."

The study highlighted the success of John Hancock RPS's client-focused service model which provides 401(k) plans with senior, highly trained and account-dedicated service representatives. This dedicated model is one of the cornerstones of the John Hancock RPS offering.

"We strive to provide the kind of service that earns consistent rankings such as these," said Steven McCormick, Senior Vice President, Operations, John Hancock RPS. "We are committed to continuing our level of service - and will work to improve upon it by continuing to ask for feedback from our plan sponsor clients."

Chatham Partners, LLC is not affiliated with John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) or John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York and neither is responsible for the liabilities of the other.

About Chatham Partners LLC

Chatham Partners, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, provides strategic advisory services and market research to the financial services industry. The 2009 Client Satisfaction survey, commissioned by John Hancock, was administered by Chatham Partners, an independent third party. Conducted in November 2009, it involved 6,397 contracts, 1,046 respondents, across different industries and plan sizes. The proprietary industry benchmark, for plans of < $20 MM, is comprised of retirement providers that record keep 158,330 plans, $401.0 billion in assets and 13.5 MM participants. Chatham Partners defines 'best-in-class' attributes as those that have top-2 box scores of 85%  or greater
; it defines 'top performer' or 'best performer' attributes as those that ranked the highest compared to others within the industry. The comparison is based on similar attributes based on similar commissioned studies executed by Chatham Partners.

About John Hancock Retirement Plan Services

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services is one of the largest providers of 401(k) plans across all plan sizes among banks, mutual funds and insurers, according to CFO Magazine. (CFO Magazine 2010 401(k) Providers Survey, for year-end 2009. Published in May 2010).

Both John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York do business under certain instances using the John Hancock Retirement Plan Services name. Group annuity contracts and recordkeeping agreements are issued by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.), Boston, MA 02210 (not licensed in New York) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York, Valhalla, NY 10595.  Product features and availability may differ by state.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial Corporation

John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 22 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and in most of Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, Manulife Financial Corporation offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$446 billion (US$440 billion) as at March 31, 2010.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers a broad range of financial products and services, including life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at www.johnhancock.com.

SOURCE John Hancock Retirement Plan Services