The last decade has seen seismic shifts in geopolitical, macroeconomic, capital market and technological trends. Today, uncertainty abounds: U.S. policy has become increasingly erratic, and artificial intelligence is advancing at a pace that promises massive productivity gains as well as disruption. How can investors navigate so much change and ongoing uncertainty? Here are some lessons […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec returned 9.3 per cent for 2025, below its benchmark portfolio’s 10.9 per cent return, according to the investment organization’s latest financial report. The investment organization’s five-year and 10-year annualized returns were 6.5 per cent and 7.2 per cent, compared to benchmarks of 6.2 per cent and 6.9 […]
Global pension assets reached a record US$68.3 trillion in 2025, rising 9.6 per cent year over year, with defined contribution savings continuing to drive growth, according to WTW’s latest global pension assets study. The report credited the creation of $6 trillion of pension asset value to a year of sustained recovery across global markets with […]
The funded status of a typical Canadian defined benefit pension plan increased on both a solvency and accounting basis during the month of December, according to a new report by Telus Health. The monthly pension index revealed the typical DB plan grew slightly from 107.4 per cent in November to 109 per cent on the […]
The average Canadian defined benefit pension plan returned 0.6 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 4.4 per cent in the previous quarter, according to a new report by the Royal Bank of Canada Investor Services. It found the average DB plan returned 7.9 per cent for the full year, down from […]
Nearly all (97 per cent) of fees paid by institutional investors go to active managers, virtually unchanged from 2023 (98 per cent), according to a new report by Callan. The report analyzed mandates run by more than 300 investment firms for nearly 180 institutional investors, representing US$784 billion in assets under management and $1.9 billion […]
The Bank of Canada is facing an increasingly uncertain 2026 despite experts agreeing on its current policy path. Etienne Bordeleau-Labrecque, vice-president and portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, says the bank is in a good position at the start of the year. “They’ve cut to the low end of what they consider the neutral rate, and […]
With only a few weeks left in a year impacted by trade wars, equity concentration risk and the increased appeal of artificial intelligence opportunities, defined benefit plan sponsors, money managers and other investment professionals gathered at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C. for the Canadian Investment Review’s 2025 Investment Innovation Conference. From Nov. 19-21, […]
Fading developed markets bilateral aid and U.S. tariff policy is pushing emerging markets debt as an attractive alternative for growing countries, according to Yvette Babb, portfolio manager at William Blair. “Debt levels in emerging markets are, in fact, lower than their advanced country counterparts. . . . Default rates are low, but also recovery rates, […]
A quantitative investment process could begin competing with the best fixed income and fundamental traditional credit asset managers in the near future, according to Bernd Wuebben, director of systematic investing and quantitative research at AllianceBernstein. “In the context of quant processes, systematic processes, there’s nothing passive about this,” he said during a session at the […]