The pen is mightier than the 12b1 fee. Maybe.

Eager to develop an in-house editorial expertise for the writing of all John Hancock Investments' white papers and other intellectual pieces, president and chief executive Andrew Arnott is assembling a squad of scribes.

So far, the team consists of at least six people, each of whom is dedicated within a particular asset class and devotes a great deal of face time getting to know all of the investment talent within each class.

"These are people who work closely with the product managers and PMs to produce white papers and other intellectual capital that are much more meaningful and developed than before," Arnott said. "An editor working with a PM understands how the person talks and what they like to see, and understands the strategies, compared to someone external who may live across the globe and never had any dealings with the company."

One key mandate for these new editors, accentuate the identity of each of the JHI's managers.

"We have 16 managers. No two think alike. The diversity of their opinions is very wide. We can really produce some in-depth materials," he said.

The scribe squad is only the latest move unveiled by Arnott over the past few months.

Arnott recently informed MFWire that he is open to more fund adoptions, that JHI has been making headway in the core equity wars, has assembled a unit devoted to harnessing the power of Big Data, and launched a S.W.A.T. for targeting tough new sales prospects. 

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