(Smaller Company Growth Trust)

Investment Objective

To seek long-term 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.

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

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (Smaller Company Growth Trust)		Series I	Series II	NAV
Management fee		1.07%	1.07%	1.07%
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees		0.05%	0.25%	none
Other Expenses		0.06%	0.06%	0.06%
Total annual fund operating expenses		1.18%	1.38%	1.13%
Contractual expense reimbursement	[1]	(0.14%)	(0.14%)	(0.14%)
Net fund operating expenses		1.04%	1.24%	0.99%

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 (Smaller Company Growth Trust) (USD $)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Series I	106	346	621	1,405
Series II	126	408	727	1,630
NAV	101	330	594	1,347

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 80% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The fund employs a multi-manager approach with three subadvisors, each of which employs its own investment approach and independently manages its portion of the fund. The Advisor may change the allocation of fund assets among the subadvisors at any time.

Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its assets in small cap equity securities.

The fund currently defines small cap equity securities as equity securities of companies with market capitalizations not exceeding $5.5 billion at the time of purchase. (The fund is not required to sell a security that has appreciated or depreciated outside this stated market capitalization range.) While the fund's investments will generally consist of U.S.-traded securities, including American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"), the fund may also invest in foreign securities and have exposure to foreign securities. The fund may also invest in IPOs.

The fund may buy or sell derivatives (such as index futures, options and swaps) to use as a substitute for a purchase or sale of a position in the underlying asset and/or as part of a strategy designed to reduce exposure to other risks, such as market risk. The fund may invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The portion of the fund managed by John Hancock Asset Management a division of Manulife Asset Management (North America) Limited ("John Hancock Asset Management (North America)") will generally be invested in (a) common stocks included in the MSCI U.S. Small Cap Growth Index; and (b) securities which may or may not be included in the MSCI U.S. Small Cap Growth Index that John Hancock Asset Management (North America) believes as a group will behave in a manner similar to the index. As of February 28, 2013, the market capitalizations of companies included in the MSCI U.S. Small Cap Growth Index range from approximately $61 million to $42 billion.

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.

Exchange-traded funds risk Owning an ETF generally reflects the risks of owning the underlying securities it is designed to track.

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 dispropor-tionate loss are the principal risks of engaging in transactions involving options. Counterparty risk does not apply to exchange-traded options.

Swaps Counterparty risk, liquidity risk (i.e., the inability to enter into closing transactions), interest-rate risk, settlement risk, risk of default of the underlying reference obligation and risk of disproportionate loss are the principal risks of engaging in transactions involving swaps.

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.

Medium and smaller company risk The prices of medium and smaller company stocks can change more frequently and dramatically than those of large company stocks. 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.

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:

Best Quarter:     19.96% (Quarter ended 6/30/2009)

Worst Quarter:   -22.29% (Quarter ended 9/30/2011)

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

Average Annual Total Returns (Smaller Company Growth Trust)	1 Year	Since Inception	Inception Date
Series I	16.22%	10.81%	Nov. 16, 2009
Series II	15.98%	10.64%	Nov. 16, 2009
NAV	16.27%	10.85%	Oct. 07, 2008
Russell 2000 Growth Index	14.59%	12.21%	Nov. 16, 2009

[1] The Advisor has contractually agreed to waive its advisory fees so that the amount retained by the Advisor after payment of the subadvisory fees for the fund does not exceed 0.45% of the fund's average net assets. The current expense limitation agreement expires on April 30, 2014 unless renewed by mutual agreement of the fund and the Advisor based upon a determination that this is appropriate under the circumstances at that time.