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(Capital Appreciation Trust)

Investment Objective

To seek long-term growth of capital.

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 (Capital Appreciation Trust)
Series I
Series II
NAV
Management fee 0.70% 0.70% 0.70%
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees 0.05% 0.25% none
Other Expenses 0.04% 0.04% 0.04%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.79% 0.99% 0.74%

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 (Capital Appreciation Trust) (USD $)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Series I
81 252 439 978
Series II
101 315 547 1,213
NAV
76 237 411 918
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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 45% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

Under normal market conditions, the fund invests at least 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related securities of companies, at the time of investment, that exceed $1 billion in market capitalization and that the subadvisor believes have above-average growth prospects. These companies are generally medium- to large-capitalization companies.

The subadvisor follows a highly disciplined investment selection and management process that seeks to identify companies that show superior absolute and relative earnings growth and also are attractively valued. The subadvisor looks for companies that experience some or all of the following: (i) above-average revenue and earnings per share growth, (ii) strong market position, (iii) improving profitability and distinctive attributes such as unique marketing ability, (iv) strong research and development and productive new product flow, and (v) financial strength. Such companies generally trade at high prices relative to their current earnings. Earnings predictability and confidence in earnings forecasts are important parts of the selection process.

Securities in which the fund invests have historically been more volatile than the S&P 500 Index. Also, companies that have an earnings growth rate higher than that of the average S&P 500 company tend to reinvest their earnings rather than distribute them. Therefore, the fund is not likely to receive significant dividend income on its securities. Seeking to invest in companies with above market-average growth, the fund may invest significantly in sectors associated with such growth, including information technology.

In addition to common stocks, nonconvertible preferred stock and convertible securities, equity-related securities in which the fund invests include: (i) American Depositary Receipts (ADRs); (ii) warrants and rights that can be exercised to obtain stock; (iii) investments in various types of business ventures, including partnerships and joint ventures; (iv) real estate investment trusts (REITs); and (v) initial public offerings (IPOs) and similar securities. (Convertible securities are securities —like bonds, corporate notes and preferred stocks —that the fund can convert into the company's common stock, cash value of common stock, or some other equity security.)

In addition to the principal strategies discussed above, the fund may also use the following investment strategies to attempt to increase the fund's return or protect its assets if market conditions warrant:

  • The fund may make short sales of a security including short sales "against the box."

  • The fund may invest up to 20% of the fund's total assets in foreign equity securities. (For purposes of this 20% limit, ADRs and other similar receipts or shares traded in U.S. markets are not considered to be foreign securities.)

  • The fund may invest in U.S. government securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or by an agency or instrumentality of the U.S. government.

  • The fund may invest in mortgage-related securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. governmental entities, including collateralized mortgage obligations, multi-class pass-through securities and stripped mortgage-backed securities.

  • The fund may invest in fixed-income securities rated investment grade. These include corporate debt and other debt obligations of U.S. and foreign issuers. The fund may invest in obligations that are not rated, but that the subadvisor believes are of comparable quality to these obligations.

  • The fund may invest in repurchase agreements.

The subadvisor considers selling or reducing a stock position when, in the opinion of the subadvisor, the stock has experienced a fundamental disappointment in earnings, it has reached an intermediate price objective and its outlook no longer seems sufficiently promising, a relatively more attractive stock emerges or the stock has experienced adverse price movement.

The fund's investment process may, at times, result in a higher than average portfolio turnover ratio and increased trading expenses.

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.

Convertible securities risk The market values of convertible securities tend to decline as interest rates increase and, conversely, to increase as interest rates decline. In addition, as the market price of the underlying common stock declines below the conversion price, the price of the convertible security tends to be increasingly influenced more by the yield of the convertible security.

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.

Equity securities risk The value of a company's equity securities is subject to changes in the company's financial condition, and overall market and economic conditions.

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.

Information technology risk The information technology sector can be significantly affected by rapid obsolescence of existing technology, short product cycles, falling prices and profits, competition from new market entrants, government regulation and general economic conditions.

Initial public offerings risk IPO shares may have a magnified impact on fund performance and are frequently volatile in price. They can be held for a short period of time causing an increase in portfolio turnover.

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.

Real estate securities risk Investing in securities of companies in the real estate industry subjects a fund to the risks associated with the direct ownership of real estate.

Short sales risk Short sales involve costs and risk. The fund must pay the lender interest on the security it borrows, and the fund will lose money if the price of the security increases between the time of the short sale and the date when the fund replaces the borrowed security.

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 I:

Bar Chart

Best Quarter:     19.52% (Quarter ended 3/31/2012)

Worst Quarter:   -20.87% (Quarter ended 12/31/2008)

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

Average Annual Total Returns (Capital Appreciation Trust)
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Inception Date
Series I
15.98% 3.00% 7.88% Nov. 01, 2000
Series II
15.84% 2.80% 7.68% Jan. 28, 2002
NAV
16.03% 3.04% 7.93% Feb. 28, 2005
Russell 1000 Growth Index
15.26% 3.12% 7.52% Nov. 01, 2000