“Let me start by pointing out the obvious: the last few years have been exhausting,” said Mina Krishnan, multi-asset portfolio manager at Schroders, during a session on regime shifts at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Global Investment Conference. “We’ve had the [coronavirus] pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and Brexit.” As a result […]
In December 2021, Simon Fraser University announced the global equity portfolios for its non-pension related funds — valued at $450 million — would divest from fossil fuel producers. Four months later, the three members of its treasury team, which is led by Jacky Shen, treasurer and director of investment at the university, announced it had […]
“Investing in private markets comes with its fair share of challenges,” said Rémi Tétreault, director of client solutions at Trans-Canada Capital Inc., during the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Global Investment Conference. “There’s operational complexity, capital calls and distributions. You’ve got the selection of the right general partners . . . and there’s the challenge of […]
While China’s presence on emerging market indexes may be shrinking, the case for investing in it remains compelling, said Vivian Lin Thurston, a partner and portfolio manager for emerging markets growth at William Blair Investment Management, during a session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Global Investment Conference. “China now accounts for approximately 31 per […]
“If it’s in private equity or an alternative asset allocation, it’s a long-term investment strategy,” said Simon Oak, principal at Lexington Partners, during the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Global Investment Conference. “Typically, it’s a five-year investment period followed by five years of harvest. Only then can investors measure their returns.” This causes a problem for […]
In his session at the 2023 Global Investment Conference, Derek Dobson, the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s chief executive officer, called back last year’s conference, noting Sebastien Betermeier, associate professor of finance at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, “talked about the benefits of the Canadian pension model, which is sometimes called […]
While individual pension plans have been around since 1991, they aren’t being widely used by the people they’re designed to help and remain poorly understood by the traditional pension sector, says Jean-Pierre Laporte, chief executive officer of Integris Pension Management Corp. “There’s no published statistics, but the last number I heard from a [Canada Revenue […]
In recent years, adaptive reuse strategies — which transform an existing structure to allow it to serve a new purpose — have become popular in the real estate portfolios of Canada’s largest public sector defined benefit pension plans. Indeed, repurposing old buildings can provide stronger returns to institutional investors than ground-up developments, but only in […]
There’s something about the Arizona State Retirement System — a US$49.3-billion defined benefit-like hybrid pension plan for the state’s 600,000 current and former public sector workers — that feels downright Canadian. The resemblance is intentional. Canadian Paul Matson, executive director of the AZSRS, drew inspiration from his home country when establishing its approach, particularly in […]
A controversial law giving super-priority to defined benefit pension plan members during plan windups and insolvencies is coming into effect after receiving royal assent from Governor General Mary Simon. While Bill C-228 received royal assent at the end of April, most of its measures won’t come into force for another four years. However, the requirement […]