US taxpayers investing in Manulife mutual funds to have the option to make the US QEF election

TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC    SEHK:945 

TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2014 /CNW/ - Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, today announced that it will provide its investors who are US taxpayers, with information to allow them the option to make a special tax election, the Qualified Electing Fund (QEF) election, when filing their US tax return for 2014.

"Taxes are an important consideration of any investment decision" said Derek Saliba, Assistant Vice President, Manulife Investments.  "We are providing this information to US taxpayers investing in our funds so that they have the option to make the QEF tax election when filing their US tax return."

Manulife Investments will provide Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) Annual Information Statements for 54 funds.  These statements contain information that will enable US taxpayers to elect to treat these funds as QEFs should they choose to do so based on the advice of their tax advisor in light of their tax circumstances.

"It is important that investors both have the information to complete their tax filing obligations and consult with their advisor and tax professional on these issues as they can be complex" said John Natale, Assistant Vice President Tax and Retirement Services, Manulife.

PFIC Annual Information Statements for the 2014 calendar year will be available for the following 54 Manulife mutual funds:

For more information, please contact Manulife Customer Service at 1-888-588-7999.
On or about March 23, 2015, PFIC Annual Information Statements will be posted to the following website: manulifemutualfunds.ca.

Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those identified by the expressions "expect", "intend", "will" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Fund, the Manager and/or the Advisor. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect the Fund's, the Manager's, and/or the Advisor's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. Although the Fund, the Manager, and/or the Advisor believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. The Fund, the Manager and/or the Advisor undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement or information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law. 

About Manulife Investments
Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, builds on 125 years of Manulife's wealth and investment management expertise in managing assets for Canadian investors. As one of Canada's leading integrated financial services providers, Manulife Investments offers a variety of products and services including segregated fund contracts, mutual funds, annuities and guaranteed interest contracts.

About Manulife
Manulife is a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. We operate as John Hancock in the U.S. and as Manulife in other parts of the world. We provide strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for our customers' significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We also provide asset management services to institutional customers. Funds under management by Manulife and its subsidiaries were approximately C$663 billion (US$591 billion) as at September 30, 2014.

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

SOURCE: Manulife Financial Corporation