NEW YORK: Digital savings platform Vestwell has promoted Nicole Wood to VP of communications.

BOSTON, Jan. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Retirement, a company of Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, is pleased to announce FutureStep™, a new open-architecture retirement plan offering. As part of a multi-year transformation strategy to expand its capabilities and in keeping with its steadfast commitment to financial intermediaries, including third-party administrators (TPAs), retirement advisors, and sponsors, the firm has signed an agreement with Vestwell to bring this new solution to market.FutureStep will be an addition to the firm's existing plan suite, advisor-centric, and a fully digital new plan option designed with the support and experience of John Hancock Retirement.Vestwell's technology powers FutureStep by John Hancock Retirement, which will be available in early 2025. This offering is designed to help advisors scale their practices while providing a simple, modern interface for seamless interactions across the advisor, employer, and saver portals.TPAs, retirement advisors, and sponsors will see competitive pricing and opportunity for enhanced employer engagement and experience high-touch service within the new offering. They'll also receive support for personalized onboarding, ongoing administration and maintenance, robust payroll integration options, and assistance in navigating complex legislation."This is an exciting time for us, and we could not be more pleased to partner with Vestwell to help bring retirement planning to more employers who are helping their employees prioritize retirement," said Wayne Park, CEO, John Hancock Retirement. "As a multiplatform provider, we've added FutureStep so we can continue to expand the number of plans and participants that we serve, as a complement to our existing plan options.""We're focused on being the partner of choice for our distribution partners, TPAs, and plan sponsors by helping to make retirement planning easier and more effective," said Gary Tankersley, Head of the Core Segment, John Hancock Retirement