The Canadian pension assets under management of the country’s top 40 investment managers increased by 7.7 percentage points over the previous year, from nearly $989 million at June 30, 2022 to more than $1 billion at June 30, 2023, according to the latest report by the Canadian Institutional Investment Network.

The CIIN, which is a companion site to Benefits Canada and the Canadian Investment Review, produces the bi-annual report as a ranking of the country’s leading investment managers. It features the latest data, which is collected through a bi-annual survey, alongside the previous year’s figures to frame how the industry is evolving.

The report for November 2023 shows a significant improvement to the previous year, when the top 40 investment managers’ total AUM was down 9.4 per cent.

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BlackRock Asset Management Canada Ltd. took the top spot in the latest report, with total Canadian pension AUM reaching $141,855 million in 2023 compared to $128,133 million in 2022, representing a 10.7 per cent year-over-year increase.

The top five was rounded out by TD Global Investment Solutions, Brookfield Asset Management Inc., PH&N Institutional and Manulife Investment Management Ltd.

The report, which also ranks money managers by specific categories, found TD Global Investment Solutions is the top ranked asset manager by Canadian defined benefit pension assets (with $125,360 AUM), while BlackRock was the top ranked for capital accumulation plans ($78,298 AUM) and Fiera Capital Corp. was the top ranked for Canadian endowment and foundation funds ($9.360 AUM).

In terms of the AUM across all categories, the top 40 Canadian investment managers were most heavily weighted in Canadian bonds (22.4 per cent), global equity (11.9 per cent), Canadian equity (10.5 per cent) and real estate (7.1 per cent).

Download a PDF of the 2023 Top 40 Money Managers Report.