John Hancock Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF

John Hancock Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF (JHMB) is an actively managed bond ETF from John Hancock (part of Manulife). It invests mainly in home and commercial mortgage-backed securities and does not track an index. As of June 30, 2026, about 42% of the fund was in bonds from private issuers, held alongside Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae pools. Its 0.39% expense ratio is well above the 0.03% to 0.04% charged by VMBS, MBB and SPMB.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, JHMB returned -1.3%, 8th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +1.1%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-10.2%); its best was 2025 (+7.9%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 14.5% (Sep 22, 2021 to Oct 24, 2022), recovered by Aug 2, 2024.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 411 securities; the ten largest made up 6.87% of assets, and 2.24% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 26.3 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 4.39%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors withdrew a net $10.9M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.26%, +0.28%, +0.28%.

JHMB is not an index fund. A manager picks the bonds, aiming for a high level of current income and trying to beat the fund's benchmark over a market cycle. At least 80% of net assets goes into mortgage-backed securities. These are bonds paid from pools of home or commercial property loans. They can be issued or guaranteed by US government-linked agencies or by private firms. The fund can also use "to-be-announced" contracts, which are agreements to buy agency mortgage pools before the exact pools are named. Up to 20% may go into below-investment-grade (junk) bonds at the time of purchase. Another 20% may go into non-mortgage debt such as other asset-backed securities and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). There is no limit on average maturity.

The manager first decides how much to put in each sector, looking at the business cycle, trends and technical factors. Then it uses bottom-up research to find bonds that look cheap. No index sets the weights or a rebalancing schedule, and the fund may trade actively. Portfolio turnover was 40%. Derivatives are capped at 5% of net assets, and the fund held none as of June 30, 2026.

The fund handles some share creations and redemptions in cash rather than by swapping securities. That can make it less tax-efficient than ETFs that do all of these in kind.

• JHMB charges 0.39% a year, versus an average of 0.2% for the similar funds below (7th of 8, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.34% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• The fee includes a 0.08% waiver from the adviser, which may end.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $40 in the first year and $584 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

JHMB pays monthly, and its yield of nearly 5% comes from mortgage bonds, a different source of bond income than Treasuries or corporate bonds.

JHMB could add monthly income to a bond allocation. Its trailing 12-month yield was 4.92% as of October 27, 2026. The fund launched in August 2021, so it has no record from the 2008 or 2020 crashes. Its one real test came in 2022, its worst calendar year, when it lost 10.66%. Its deepest drop was 14.5%, from September 2021 to October 2022. Recovery took about 21 months, until August 2024. Anyone who had to sell shares in late 2022 to cover spending would have locked in that loss. Cost is the other thing to watch. The 0.39% expense ratio, about $40 in the first year on $10,000 under the SEC's standard example, is roughly double the 0.20% average of similar funds. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).