John Hancock Funds' Signature Services Unit Named 'Best-in-Class' by National Quality Review for 2007

Honored as top performer for telephone customer service BOSTON, March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Hancock SignatureServices, Inc. (JHSS), the transfer and shareholder services agent for JohnHancock Funds, was awarded "Best-In-Class" honors and "5-Star" performerstatus for telephone customer service for all of 2007 by National QualityReview (NQR). Keith F. Hartstein, President and Chief Executive Officer of JohnHancock Funds, said: "We have enjoyed explosive growth in our sales ofopen-end mutual funds over the past several years. As important as it is tobring in new shareholders, we realize that it is equally important toretain those shareholders over the long term by delivering superiorperformance and excellence in customer service. We are proud of thisrecognition, and congratulate our colleagues at JHSS." NQR's "Best-In-Class" service rating recognizes top-performingcompanies in a variety of areas including telephone service, transactionprocessing, shareholder correspondence and literature fulfillment."Best-In-Class" is the highest quality rating in any service area. NQR's"5-Star" performance measures are fixed for one year based upon fourquarters of data from NQR's top quartile companies. On a quarterly basis,companies whose four-quarter rolling averages for Overall Telephone Servicefall within the "5-Star" performance ranges will be noted as "5-Star"performers, or top quartile performing companies. About John Hancock Funds The Boston-based mutual fund business unit of John Hancock FinancialServices, John Hancock Funds manages more than $56.8 billion in open-endfunds, closed-end funds, private accounts, retirement plans and relatedparty assets for individual and institutional investors at December 31,2007. John Hancock Funds are distributed by John Hancock Funds, LLC, memberFINRA. For more information, please visit http://www.jhfunds.com. John Hancock Financial Services is a unit of Manulife FinancialCorporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group servingmillions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operatingas Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily through JohnHancock in the United States, the company offers clients a diverse range offinancial protection products and wealth management services through itsextensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Fundsunder management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$396billion (US$401 billion) at December 31, 2007. Manulife FinancialCorporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '0945' onthe SEHK. Manulife Financial may be found on the Internet athttp://www.manulife.com.