Manulife Financial Corporation

Manulife originates private-market investments primarily through direct, in-house teams embedded in key markets such as Boston, Toronto, and Hong Kong. For real estate, the firm relies on deep local operating platforms that acquire, manage, and develop properties without intermediary fees. In private credit, deal flow comes through a combination of direct corporate relationships, its bancassurance partnership with DBS Bank in Asia, and co-investor networks that include long-standing partners like Allianz in US real estate.

Manulife is widely recognized as one of the largest institutional owners of timberland and farmland globally. The portfolio, managed through Manulife Investment Management's private markets group, spans millions of acres primarily in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The assets serve a dual purpose: they generate recurring income from timber harvests and crop leases while providing a natural inflation hedge for the insurance general account's long-dated liabilities.

Manulife operates predominantly on a direct-investment model for its core alternative asset classes, especially real estate, timberland, farmland, and private credit. However, through its Manulife Investment Management arm, the firm also manages third-party capital in commingled fund structures that allow external institutional investors to access the same strategies deployed in the general account. The firm does not typically position itself as a large-scale fund-of-funds allocator.

Scott Hartz serves as the Global Chief Investment Officer, overseeing the general account and the broader investment management platform. The investment team operates through a decentralized structure with senior portfolio managers in Boston, Toronto, and Hong Kong who are accountable for asset-class-specific mandates, all reporting through Hartz to CEO Roy Gori. Hartz joined the firm in the early 2000s and has held the top investment role for over a decade.

The general account's long-duration liabilities allow for genuinely patient capital that is not subject to mark-to-market volatility in the same manner as a mutual fund or open-end REIT. This structure enables the firm to hold illiquid assets through downturns and to avoid forced selling. It also means the portfolio is constructed around asset-liability matching, with private credit and real assets providing the duration and yield characteristics needed to offset actuarial obligations.

Manulife co-invests selectively and typically alongside institutions with whom it has an existing, long-standing relationship. The firm's US real estate platform has executed direct co-investments with Allianz. In private credit, it participates in club deals and direct-lending syndicates where it can lead or exert significant influence on terms, rather than passively taking a minority position in a sponsor-driven process.

Philanthropic giving is organized under the Manulife Impact Agenda, a company-wide framework that prioritizes grants in three areas: health and well-being, economic inclusion, and climate resilience. The firm does not maintain a separate foundation with an independent endowment; rather, corporate giving is budgeted annually from operating income. The Impact Agenda also informs the firm's ESG integration priorities within the investment portfolio.