John Hancock files JDVM, an active mid-cap value ETF, for a December effective date

Steven L. Pollack has run John Hancock's mid-cap value strategy since 2001 inside John Hancock Disciplined Value Mid Cap Fund, which, as of August 31, held 137 stocks. The two Select ETFs Boston Partners already runs for the firm hold 37 and 39 names. Thursday's filing would register a mid-cap fund under that same Select label.

The fund had $22.93 billion in assets as of September 18. Timothy P. Collard has co-managed it with Pollack since 2023. As of July 31 its top ten were 15.5% of assets. Class I, ticker JVMIX, charges 0.85% after a one-basis-point waiver, per the fund's August 1, 2026 summary prospectus.

John Hancock Disciplined Value Select ETF CJDVL, the large-cap fund David Cohen and Joshua White have run for Boston Partners since August 2025, had $936 million as of Wednesday and charges 0.56% after a fee waiver. It held 39 stocks, with the top ten at 40% of the portfolio. Disciplined Value International Select ETF DJDVI, which Christopher Hart, Joshua Jones, and Soyoun Song run for Boston Partners, had $769 million and charges 0.69%, with 37 holdings.

The paper that would add a mid-cap Select ETF is a Form 485APOS, filed Thursday by John Hancock Exchange-Traded Fund Trust. It registers John Hancock Disciplined Value Mid Cap Select ETF JDVM, which Boston Partners would run, listed on NYSE Arca. A 485APOS is how an existing fund trust adds a new series under Rule 485(a). The trust has asked for the amendment to become effective on December 10, 2026. The prospectus is preliminary, the trust cannot sell the shares until the amendment becomes effective, and the management fee, the contractual expense cap, and the net expense ratio are each still marked to be updated. The filing puts the public offering "as soon as practicable" after that date. The statement of additional information then floats a start "on or about" December 15, in brackets.

What the prospectus says JDVM would own

JDVM would seek long-term capital growth. It would not track an index. Under normal circumstances it would invest at least 80% of net assets, plus borrowings, in equity and equity-related securities of value companies whose market capitalizations fall inside the range of the Russell Midcap Value Index. The filing puts that range at about $2.37 billion to $91.74 billion as of June 30, 2026, and notes that the band can move.

"Value" here is elastic enough that the fund need not look like the index it borrows its cap range from. Boston Partners can treat a company as a value name if it screens cheap on price-to-book or price-to-earnings against the broader Russell Midcap Index, or if it already sits in a value index. The process is bottom-up, mixing fundamental and quantitative work, and the fund would generally buy issuers Boston Partners thinks are undervalued.

The fund is proposed as non-diversified, which means it may put more of the book in fewer issuers than a diversified fund. Collard and Pollack are named as the portfolio managers jointly responsible for the day-to-day book. John Hancock Investment Management LLC is named as adviser.

The mid-cap value funds JDVM would sit beside

The capitalization range in the prospectus is the one behind iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF BIWS, which had $15.1 billion in assets as of Wednesday and charges 0.23%. That fund is built to follow the index, not to pick inside it.

Active mid-cap value funds already trade. Avantis U.S. Mid Cap Value ETF AAVMV is a systematic book of $774 million, at 0.20%. Thrivent Mid Cap Value ETF BTMVE is a fundamental portfolio of $286 million, at 0.55%. CJDVL prices at 0.56% and DJDVI at 0.69%.

What a book as concentrated as those two Select ETFs would have to charge against 0.20% and 0.55% is the line Thursday's paper left blank.