What are Avenue portfolios?

Avenue portfolios are diversified combinations of investments, each corresponding to a specific Investor Profile and Investment Period. This approach takes into account your comfort level for risk, as well as the time remaining until your retirement. You may choose to invest your assets according to the Avenue portfolio that matches your situation.

How do I know which Avenue portfolio to choose?

Manulife can help you choose a reasonable, balanced, risk-adjusted portfolio using Avenue portfolios. You can self-evaluate your comfort level for risk using the Investor Profiler and select your Investment Period from the available choices. Should you prefer you may choose to provide your own custom investment instructions, if available for your plan.

What is an Investor Profile?

It’s important to choose investments that you are comfortable with, given your Investment Period. Your Investor Profile relates to the level of investment risk you are willing to bear over the long term. It is the balance of risk and return that is right for you. There are 3 profiles, which are labelled as conservative, moderate and aggressive.

• A conservative profile offers a higher portfolio allocation of fixed-income and a low equity allocation, which generally means less risk. The investments tend to be less affected by market fluctuations. If you are a conservative investor, you want the security of guarantees, may have little knowledge about investing, and are basically a “saver”. A conservative portfolio is appropriate for you if you have concerns about market volatility.
  
  
• A moderate profile is made up of a balanced portfolio of fixed-income and equity funds. You are a moderate investor if you are more growth-oriented, have some investment knowledge, and are willing to accept a moderate degree of risk to achieve better returns in the long run. A moderate portfolio is appropriate for you if you want a balance between growth and income.
  
  
• An aggressive profile is made up of a relatively high equity allocation within a portfolio, which generally carries more risk but higher returns over the long term. The aggressive investor’s focus is squarely on growth. You are seeking maximum long-term returns and are knowledgeable about investments. An aggressive portfolio is appropriate for you if you are not bothered by short-term market fluctuations.

What is an Investment Period?

The Investment Period represents the number of years your investments have to grow. As your Investment Period shortens, you may wish to realign your assets in order to minimize your portfolio’s risk exposure.

How can I make sure that my investments stay on track?

Because markets fluctuate, your returns will vary. The returns produced by each of the funds you invest in will cause the proportion of each fund in your portfolio to deviate from your investment instructions over time. You may rebalance your assets to ensure that they stay on track with your investment instructions, at any time by using the Asset Rebalancing feature under the Manage Your Plans section, or automatically on a regular basis using the Systematic Asset Rebalancing (SAR) feature (if available for your plan). You can find out more by visiting the About SAR help page.

What happens when my Avenue portfolio is adjusted as my investment period shortens? (if available for your plan)

The optimal level of risk in your portfolio can only be achieved by taking into account both your Investor Profile and your Investment Period. This adjustment ensures that as you move from one Investment Period to the next, your investment instructions for future deposits will change at the same time; your assets (current holdings) will also be rebalanced to match the new investment instructions. A notification will be sent to you at least 30 days before changes take place.