(Equity-Income Trust)

Investment Objective

To provide substantial dividend income and also 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.

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

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (Equity-Income Trust)		Series I	Series II	NAV
Management fee		0.78%	0.78%	0.78%
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees		0.05%	0.25%	none
Other Expenses		0.03%	0.03%	0.03%
Acquired fund fees and expenses	[1]	0.01%	0.01%	0.01%
Total annual fund operating expenses		0.87%	1.07%	0.82%

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 (Equity-Income Trust) (USD $)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Series I	89	278	482	1,073
Series II	109	340	590	1,306
NAV	84	262	455	1,014

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 14% 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 equity securities, with at least 65% in common stocks of well-established companies paying above-average dividends. The fund typically employs a "value" approach and invests in stocks and other securities that appear to be undervalued by various measures and may be temporarily out of favor but have good prospects for capital appreciation and dividend growth.

Under normal market conditions, substantial dividend income means that the yield on the fund's portfolio securities generally exceeds the yield on the fund's benchmark. The subadvisor believes that income can contribute significantly to total return over time and expects the fund's yield to exceed that of the S&P 500 Index. While the price of a company's stock can go up or down in response to earnings or to fluctuations in the general market, stocks paying a high level of dividend income tend to be less volatile than those with below-average dividends and may help offset losses in falling markets.

The fund will generally consider companies in the aggregate with one or more of the following characteristics:

• established operating histories;

• above-average dividend yield relative to the S&P 500 Index;

• low price/earnings ratios relative to the S&P 500 Index;

• sound balance sheets and other positive financial characteristics; and

• low stock price relative to a company's underlying value, as measured by assets, cash flow or business franchises.

The fund may also purchase other types of securities in keeping with its objective, including:

• U.S. dollar- and foreign currency-denominated foreign securities including American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) (up to 25% of total assets);

• preferred stocks;

• convertible stocks, bonds, and warrants;

• futures and options; and

• bank debt, loan participations and assignments.

The fund may invest in fixed-income securities without restrictions on quality or rating, including up to 10% in non-investment grade fixed-income securities ("junk bonds"). The fund's fixed-income investments may include privately negotiated notes or loans, including loan participations and assignments ("bank loans"). These investments will only be made in companies, municipalities or entities that meet the fund's investment criteria. Direct investments in bank loans may be illiquid and holding a loan could expose the fund to the risks of being a direct lender. Since the fund invests primarily in equity securities, the risks associated with fixed income securities will not effect the fund as much as they would a fund that invests more of its assets in fixed-income securities.

The fund holds a certain portion of its assets in money market reserves which can consist of shares of the T. Rowe Price Reserve Investment Fund (or any other internal T. Rowe Price money market fund) as well as U.S. dollar- and foreign currency-denominated money market securities, including repurchase agreements, in the two highest rating categories, maturing in one year or less. The fund may invest reserves in U.S. dollars and foreign currencies.

The fund may sell securities for a variety of reasons such as to secure gains, limit losses or redeploy assets into more promising opportunities.

The fund may invest up to 10% of its total assets in hybrid instruments. Hybrid instruments are a type of high-risk derivative which can combine the characteristics of securities, futures and options. Such securities may bear interest or pay dividends at below market (or even relatively nominal) rates.

In pursuing the fund's investment objective, the subadvisor has the discretion to deviate from its normal investment criteria, as described above, and purchase securities the subadvisor believes will provide an opportunity for substantial appreciation. These special situations might arise when the subadvisor believes a security could increase in value for a variety of reasons including a change in management, an extraordinary corporate event, a new product introduction or a favorable competitive development.

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.

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.

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. The following is a list of certain derivatives and other strategic transactions in which the fund may invest and the main risks associated with each of them:

Futures contracts Counterparty risk, liquidity risk (i.e., the inability to enter into closing transactions) and risk of disproportionate loss are the principal risks of engaging in transactions involving futures contracts.

Options Counterparty risk, liquidity risk (i.e., the inability to enter into closing transactions) and risk of disproportionate loss are the principal risks of engaging in transactions involving options. Counterparty risk does not apply to exchange-traded options.

Hybrid instrument risk Hybrid instruments are potentially more volatile and carry greater market risk than traditional debt instruments. Hybrid instruments may bear interest or pay preferred dividends at below market rates and may be illiquid.

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.

Large company risk Large-capitalization stocks as a group could fall out of favor with the market, causing the fund to underperform investments that focus on small- or medium-capitalization stocks. Larger, more established companies may be slow to respond to challenges and may grow more slowly than smaller companies. For purposes of the fund's investment policies, the market capitalization of a company is based on its market capitalization at the time the fund purchases the company's securities. Market capitalizations of companies change over time.

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.

Loan participations risk Participations and assignments involve special types of risks, including credit risk, interest-rate risk, counterparty risk, liquidity risk and the risks of being a lender.

Lower-rated Fixed-income securities risk and high-yield securities risk Lower-rated fixed-income securities and high-yield fixed-income securities (commonly known as "junk bonds") are subject to greater credit quality risk and risk of default than higher-rated fixed-income securities. These securities may be considered speculative and the value of these securities can be more volatile due to increased sensitivity to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market or economic developments and can be difficult to resell.

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:

Best Quarter:     19.64% (Quarter ended 6/30/2009)

Worst Quarter:   -22.37% (Quarter ended 12/31/2008)

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

Average Annual Total Returns (Equity-Income Trust)	1 Year	5 Years	10 Years	Inception Date
Series I	17.44%	1.54%	7.12%	Feb. 19, 1993
Series II	17.18%	1.33%	6.91%	Jan. 28, 2002
NAV	17.47%	1.59%	7.16%	Feb. 28, 2005
Russell 1000 Value Index	17.51%	0.59%	7.38%	Feb. 19, 1993

[1] "Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses" are based on the indirect net expenses associated with the fund's investment in underlying funds and are included in "Total Fund Operating Expenses". The Total Fund Operating Expenses shown may not correlate to the fund's ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the "Financial Highlights" section of the fund prospectus, which does not include Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses.