August 20, 2014

Mr. Jim B. Rosenberg

Senior Assistant Chief Accountant

United States Securities and Exchange Commission

Washington, D.C. 20549

Re:Manulife Financial Corporation

Form 40-F for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2013

Filed February 26, 2014 and amended on March 21, 2014

File No. 1-14942

Dear Mr. Rosenberg:

 We have received your letter dated August 19, 2014.  We anticipate that additional time will be needed to finalize our responses given limited availability of key executives over the summer holidays.  We respectfully request that we be granted until September 15th to submit our responses, an 8 business day extension to the 10 business days already provided.  I would appreciate it if you would confirm to me that this will be acceptable.

Sincerely,

/s/ Antonella Deo                                                      

Vice President & Corporate Secretary

cc:       Stephen B. Roder

 Manulife Financial Corporation

200 Bloor Street East, NT-10, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  M4W 1E5 Tel: (416) 852-9446  Fax: (416) 926-3041 E-mail: antonella_deo@manulife.com	www.manulife.com
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