At the Alberta Investment Management Corp., diversity, equity and inclusion has catapulted up the priority list when it comes to investment strategy. While DEI has long played a role in the decisions of the AIMCo and other institutional investors, says Alison Schneider, the organization’s vice-president of responsible investing, she credits the coronavirus pandemic for catalyzing […]
While politics plays a role in most investment decisions, it tends to arise on a fairly localized basis, says Michael Craig, head of the asset allocation and derivatives teams at TD Asset Management Inc. In addition, its prominence as a factor usually rises and falls on a cycle, slipping easily off investors’ radar in times […]
Right from the very beginning, the coronavirus pandemic has taken Canadian real estate investors on a wild ride. After the freefalling panic of March 2020, the sector settled into a relatively comfortable rhythm and undulated through several waves of the virus, saving one of its steeper peaks and troughs for the tail end of 2021. […]
Years before his late-career rebirth as nemesis to former U.S. President Donald Trump, Robert Muller coined a phrase that went down in history among cybersecurity experts. “I am convinced that there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked and those that will be,” said the then Federal Bureau of Investigation director […]
The selection of a target-date fund glide path is more crucial than ever as the migration from DB to DC pension plans continues. Since its formation in the mid-1990s as an optional alternative to the company’s longstanding defined benefit offerings, the DC plan has amassed more than $1.5 billion in total assets as members gradually […]
Michel Charron has had a front-row seat for the revolution in the Canadian investment industry’s approach to environmental, social and governance issues. Following the foundation of the United Nation’s principles for responsible investment in 2008, his firm, PBI Actuarial Consultants Inc., immediately signed up. But the concept required explanation for some pension plan sponsors, he […]
If there was a Hall of Fame for catastrophic years, 2020 would be a certainty for admission, with Canada among many nations around the globe struggling through a sickening cycle of coronavirus pandemic waves, interrupted only by economic and societal lockdowns. But take a look at the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s […]
The Public Service Pension Investment Board is teaming up with real estate investor Bridge Industrial to launch a joint venture targeting logistics properties in the U.K. The pair aim to build a portfolio worth £1 billion ($1.7 billion) by acquiring and developing assets inside high-barrier infill markets in the Greater London and Midlands regions. Read: Caisse […]
If you needed any evidence that cryptocurrency investments are having a mainstream moment, look no further than last weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live. In the week leading up to Tesla co-founder and cryptocurrency enthusiast Elon Musk’s May 8 appearance as host of the long-running comedy sketch show, Dogecoin hit an all-time high of around US$0.73, […]
Investors breathed a sigh of relief as they turned over their calendars at the end of 2020. Few were sorry to see the back of a turbulent year that drove nation after nation to their worst economic contractions in generations: over the course of 2020, the U.S. gross domestic product shrank around 3.5 per cent, […]