2005 News Releases

BOSTON John Hancock Life Insurance Company's Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) department, following an extensive study of its cognitive screening results, has moderated its cognitive scoring guidelines.

The study compared all John Hancock LTCI claims with a primary or secondary diagnosis of cognition, underwritten since 1999, with the results of nearly 300,000 underwriting assessments completed during the period. The review showed John Hancock had applied scoring criteria conservatively and now is able to approve applications of those individuals who score in the lowest positive range but are not cognitively impaired.

“With six years of experience using the Minnesota Cognitive Acuity Screen (MCAS), we know that we’ve been scoring more strictly than necessary,” said Loida Abraham, vice president, John Hancock Long Term Care. “We expect our new criteria will improve approval ratios for our long term care insurance applications through a decrease in cognitive declines.”

Key findings of the study showed:

• Cognitive claims in John Hancock’s insured population were dramatically less than those found in comparable age groups within the U.S. population (even without including adverse selection).
• The false positive percentage (number of applicants who passed the cognitive screen and went on to claim during the period studied) was very low at 0.008 percent

The MCAS is a proven and widely used cognitive screen that has been scientifically validated to be highly effective at determining the presence or absence of mild to moderate cognitive impairment with an accuracy rate of 98.1 percent. The MCAS Cognitive Screen is administered by Nation’s CareLink; a national provider of insurance assessment and screening services.

The evaluation took place as part of John Hancock Long Term Care’s annual best practices review through which underwriting criteria, practices, processes and requirements are assessed.

Other parts of the best practices underwriting review also led to further changes, including:

• Allowing 14 previously declined and or postponed condition profiles to be considered for approval
• Allowing hypertension treated with a dual action medication to be considered at preferred rates
• Reducing the recovery period for new onset diabetes from 12 months to 6 months

About John Hancock Long Term Care Insurance
Today, John Hancock, a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, is one of the largest providers of LTC insurance overall with more than 894,000 clients and $1.1 billion of in-force premium.

Having entered the retail LTC insurance market in 1987, John Hancock is the second-largest provider of individual coverage in the country. John Hancock began selling group LTC insurance in 1988 and today is the largest provider of employer-sponsored LTC insurance in the U.S.

In 2002, John Hancock with MetLife were together selected to administer an LTC insurance program for federal employees, retirees and various family members across the country. The program is the largest single employer-sponsored LTC insurance program of its kind.

When the company merged with Manulife Financial Corporation in 2004, John Hancock Long Term Care Insurance grew to include Manulife’s Avon Long Term Care Leaders (ALTCL), a specialized LTC insurance third party administrator and risk manager. Located in Avon, CT, ALTCL is known for its history in product development, underwriting and claim handling. Over the past 15 years, ALTCL management has developed LTC insurance programs for more than 20 companies in 14 countries.

About John Hancock and Manulife Financial
John Hancock is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily through John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$360 billion (US$310 billion) as at September 30, 2005.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as ‘MFC’ on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under ‘0945’ 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 today offers a broad range of financial products and services, including whole life, term life, variable life, and universal life insurance, as well as college savings products, fixed and variable annuities, long term care insurance, mutual funds and various forms of business insurance.

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Long Term Care Insurance is underwritten by John Hancock Life Insurance Company,
Boston, MA 02117

PR-2005-47 11-05

Contact
Melissa Berczuk
617-572-6390