Key Takeaways
- • Manulife John Hancock Retirement and Great Gray Trust Company are developing the proposed Lifetime Blend+ target-date CIT series, which would allocate up to 20% of assets to private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate.
- • Great Gray Trust Company, with $371.8 billion in fund assets as of June 30, 2026, is expected to serve as trustee, providing fiduciary oversight for daily-valued private market exposures.
- • The private markets sleeve uses an open-architecture model, with internal Manulife capabilities anchoring real estate and credit and external managers including Apollo, J.P. Morgan AM, StepStone and Townsend.
- • Less than 1% of the roughly $14 trillion in defined contribution assets is currently invested in private markets, versus about 24% for US public pensions, according to 2023 data cited by InvestmentNews.
- • The launch is in development and subject to final approvals, so the product is not yet available to plan participants.
Summary
Manulife John Hancock Retirement and Great Gray Trust Company, LLC are collaborating on Lifetime Blend+, a proposed suite of target-date collective investment trusts (CITs) for defined contribution plan participants that would bring private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate into retirement portfolios. According to the companies, the series would allocate up to 20% of assets to private markets, with the remainder held in Manulife John Hancock-affiliated CITs and stable value products.
The structure is designed to address a central obstacle to placing private assets in retirement plans: daily valuation and participant-directed trading. Great Gray, described as one of the largest independent CIT trustees in the United States with $371.8 billion in fund assets as of June 30, 2026, is expected to act as trustee and provide the fiduciary oversight and operational infrastructure required. Rob Barnett, President and CEO of Great Gray Group, said private assets must sit inside a vehicle that values daily, trades on recordkeeping platforms and meets fiduciary standards. The partnership builds on an earlier Great Gray and iCapital collaboration on private markets due diligence and manager selection in the CIT space.
The private markets sleeve follows an open-architecture approach. Manulife Investment Management's in-house real estate team and its credit capabilities, delivered through Manulife | CQS Investment Management and Manulife | Comvest Credit Partners, anchor internal allocations. Proposed external exposures include private equity through Apollo Global Management, infrastructure through J.P. Morgan Asset Management and StepStone Group, and real estate through Townsend. The companies noted that Manulife John Hancock is not affiliated with these firms and that their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement. The strategy is built around the Lifetime Through Glidepath, developed by Manulife Investment Management's Multi-Asset Solutions Team, which seeks to address the competing risks of outliving savings and falling short of income goals.
Wayne Park, CEO of Manulife John Hancock Retirement, framed the launch as addressing longer lifespans and rising income needs, while David Cohen, Head of U.S. Retirement Investment Product at Manulife John Hancock Investments, described Lifetime Blend+ as bringing together retirement, multi-asset, stable value and private markets capabilities with external partners.
The launch comes as CITs now hold more than $2 trillion in target-date assets, overtaking mutual funds for the first time at the start of 2025, according to Morningstar data. Private market penetration in defined contribution plans remains limited, and Empower, State Street Global Advisors and Invesco have each launched CIT-based solutions with private market allocations over the past two years. Lifetime Blend+ is currently in development and subject to final approvals. Manulife John Hancock Retirement services more than 56,000 retirement plans with over 3.3 million participants and over $278 billion in assets under management and administration as of September 30, 2026, according to the company.
The structure is designed to address a central obstacle to placing private assets in retirement plans: daily valuation and participant-directed trading. Great Gray, described as one of the largest independent CIT trustees in the United States with $371.8 billion in fund assets as of June 30, 2026, is expected to act as trustee and provide the fiduciary oversight and operational infrastructure required. Rob Barnett, President and CEO of Great Gray Group, said private assets must sit inside a vehicle that values daily, trades on recordkeeping platforms and meets fiduciary standards. The partnership builds on an earlier Great Gray and iCapital collaboration on private markets due diligence and manager selection in the CIT space.
The private markets sleeve follows an open-architecture approach. Manulife Investment Management's in-house real estate team and its credit capabilities, delivered through Manulife | CQS Investment Management and Manulife | Comvest Credit Partners, anchor internal allocations. Proposed external exposures include private equity through Apollo Global Management, infrastructure through J.P. Morgan Asset Management and StepStone Group, and real estate through Townsend. The companies noted that Manulife John Hancock is not affiliated with these firms and that their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement. The strategy is built around the Lifetime Through Glidepath, developed by Manulife Investment Management's Multi-Asset Solutions Team, which seeks to address the competing risks of outliving savings and falling short of income goals.
Wayne Park, CEO of Manulife John Hancock Retirement, framed the launch as addressing longer lifespans and rising income needs, while David Cohen, Head of U.S. Retirement Investment Product at Manulife John Hancock Investments, described Lifetime Blend+ as bringing together retirement, multi-asset, stable value and private markets capabilities with external partners.
The launch comes as CITs now hold more than $2 trillion in target-date assets, overtaking mutual funds for the first time at the start of 2025, according to Morningstar data. Private market penetration in defined contribution plans remains limited, and Empower, State Street Global Advisors and Invesco have each launched CIT-based solutions with private market allocations over the past two years. Lifetime Blend+ is currently in development and subject to final approvals. Manulife John Hancock Retirement services more than 56,000 retirement plans with over 3.3 million participants and over $278 billion in assets under management and administration as of September 30, 2026, according to the company.
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