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(Bond Trust)

Investment Objective

To seek income and capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if shares of the fund are held by separate accounts of certain John Hancock insurance companies that fund variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts. They are based on expenses incurred during the fund's most recent fiscal year expressed as a percentage of the fund's average net assets during the year. In subsequent periods, the fund's expense ratio may increase due to decreases in fund assets attributable to redemptions and declines in portfolio valuation. The fees and expenses do not reflect fees and expenses of any separate account that may use the fund as its underlying investment medium and would be higher if they did.

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Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (Bond Trust)
Series I
Series II
NAV
Management fee 0.57% 0.57% 0.57%
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees 0.05% 0.25% none
Other Expenses 0.03% 0.03% 0.03%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.65% 0.85% 0.60%

Examples. The examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The examples assume that $10,000 is invested in the fund for the periods indicated and then all shares are redeemed at the end of those periods. The examples also assume that the investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example (Bond Trust) (USD $)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Series I
66 208 362 810
Series II
87 271 471 1,049
NAV
61 192 335 750
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Portfolio Turnover

The fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the fund's performance. During its most recent fiscal year, the fund's portfolio turnover rate was 114% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

Under normal market conditions, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in a diversified mix of debt securities and instruments. The fund seeks to invest its assets in debt securities and instruments with an average duration of between 4 to 6 years, however, there is no limit on the fund's average maturity.

Eligible investments include, but are not limited to:

  • U.S. Treasury and agency securities as well as notes backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,

  • Mortgage-backed securities, including mortgage pass-through securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities ("CMBS") and collateralized mortgage obligations ("CMOs")

  • U.S. and foreign corporate bonds, and

  • Foreign government and agency securities.

The subadvisor uses proprietary research and economic and industry analysis to identify specific bonds, bond sectors and industries that are attractively priced. Due to this process, the fund may have a higher than average portfolio turnover ratio which may affect performance results.

The foreign securities in which the fund invests may be denominated in U.S. dollars or foreign currency.

Use of Hedging and Other Strategic Transactions. The fund is authorized to use all of the various investment strategies referred to under "Additional Information About the Funds' Principal Risks —Hedging, derivatives and other strategic trans actions risk" including, but not limited to, U.S. Treasury futures and options, index derivatives, credit default swaps and forwards.

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

The fund is subject to risks, and you could lose money by investing in the fund. The principal risks of investing in the fund include:

Active management risk The subadvisor's investment strategy may fail to produce the intended result.

Credit and counterparty risk The issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, the counterparty to an over-the-counter derivatives contract or a borrower of a fund's securities may be unable or unwilling to make timely principal, interest or settlement payments, or otherwise honor its obligations. Funds that invest in fixed-income securities are subject to varying degrees of risk that the issuers of the securities will have their credit rating downgraded or will default, potentially reducing a fund's share price and income level.

Fixed-income securities risk Fixed-income securities are affected by changes in interest rates and credit quality. A rise in interest rates typically causes bond prices to fall. The longer the average maturity of the bonds held by the fund, the more sensitive the fund is likely to be to interest-rate changes. There is the possibility that the issuer of the security will not repay all or a portion of the principal borrowed and will not make all interest payments.

Foreign securities risk As compared to U.S. companies, there may be less publicly available information relating to foreign companies. Foreign securities may be subject to foreign taxes. The value of foreign securities is subject to currency fluctuations and adverse political and economic developments.

Hedging, derivatives and other strategic transactions risk Hedging and other strategic transactions may increase the volatility of a fund and, if the transaction is not successful, could result in a significant loss to a fund. The use of derivative instruments could produce disproportionate gains or losses, more than the principal amount invested. Investing in derivative instruments involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in securities and other traditional investments and, in a down market, could become harder to value or sell at a fair price.

High portfolio turnover risk Actively trading securities can increase transaction costs (thus lowering performance).

Issuer risk An issuer of a security may perform poorly and, therefore, the value of its stocks and bonds may decline. An issuer of securities held by the fund could default or have its credit rating downgraded.

Liquidity risk Exposure exists when trading volume, lack of a market maker or legal restrictions impair the ability to sell particular securities or close derivative positions at an advantageous price.

Mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities risk Different types of mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities are subject to different combinations of prepayment, extension, interest-rate and/or other market risks.

Past Performance

The following information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the fund by showing changes in performance from year to year and by showing how average annual returns for specified periods compare with those of a broad measure of market performance. Unless all share classes shown in the table have the same inception date, performance shown for periods prior to the inception date of a class is the performance of the fund's oldest share class. This pre-inception performance, with respect to any other share class of the fund, has not been adjusted to reflect the 12b-1 fees of that class. As a result, the pre-inception performance shown for a share class other than the oldest share class may be higher or lower than it would be if adjusted to reflect the 12b-1 fees of the class. The performance information below does not reflect fees and expenses of any variable insurance contract which may use JHVIT as its underlying investment medium. If such fees and expenses had been reflected, performance would be lower. The past performance of the fund is not necessarily an indication of how the fund will perform in the future.

Calendar year total returns for Series NAV:

Bar Chart

Best Quarter:     2.97% (Quarter ended 6/30/2010)

Worst Quarter:   -1.32% (Quarter ended 12/31/2010)

Average Annual Total Returns for period ended 12/31/2012

Average Annual Total Returns (Bond Trust)
1 Year
Since Inception
Inception Date
Series I
6.34% 6.48% Oct. 31, 2011
Series II
6.12% 6.41% Oct. 31, 2011
NAV
6.31% 6.38% Jul. 29, 2009
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index
4.22% 6.37% Jul. 29, 2009