AIMCo, the Alberta multi-client manager.

AIMCo is the seventh Maple 8 primer in the Manager Watch sequence. Of the Maple 8 managers, it serves the most heterogeneous client roster: nine pension plans across different cohorts of Alberta public-sector workers, four endowment funds (one of which is a long-established provincial sovereign-wealth-style vehicle), four government funds run on a low-risk preservation mandate, three insurance funds, and three specialty funds. This primer reads the structure.

The 2025 numbers, on the record.

AIMCo’s 2025 results, calendar year ended December 31, 2025:^[1]

• Total client AUM $194.7 billion (up from $179.6 billion at end of 2024)
• Balanced Fund net investment return 7.6% ($13.1 billion)
• Total Fund return 7.5%
• Both underperformed benchmarks by 2.7% (“largely reflecting a challenging year for private markets and the use of public market-linked benchmarks within private asset classes”)
• 4-year annualised Balanced Fund return 5.7% ($31.7B)
• 10-year annualised Balanced Fund return 7.2% ($76.5B)

The 2025 Annual Report is scheduled for release in June 2026;^[1] the figures above are unaudited preliminary.

Asset-class returns (2025).

The published 2025 asset-class breakdown:^[1]

Two observations consistent with the cohort:

• Public Equities at 19.4% is the cohort high for the published period. AIMCo’s CIO Justin Lord names the same AI-tied driver other Maple 8 managers point to: “Public Equities maintained impressive performance in 2025, buoyed by investor confidence in artificial intelligence- related capital investments and increased earnings expectations.”^[1]
• Real Estate at -2.2% is in line with the cohort. OTPP -3.1%, BCI -1.8% on Real Estate Equity.

The client roster.

AIMCo publishes a client list grouped into five categories.^[2] The full list as at December 31, 2024:

Pension plans (9)

• Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund (ATRF) — Alberta teachers in school jurisdictions, charter schools, and the Private School Teachers’ Pension Plan
• Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) — AIMCo’s largest client. Members are employees of cities, towns, villages, municipal districts, hospitals, colleges, school boards, “and many other public service organizations”
• Management Employees Pension Plan (MEPP) — management-level employees of the Alberta provincial public service
• Management Supplementary Retirement (MSRP) — additional benefits beyond MEPP for managers whose salary exceeds the federal Income Tax Act DB limit
• Provincial Judges & Applications Judges Registered Pension Plan (JRPP) — justices appointed under the Court of Justice Act
• Provincial Judges & Applications Judges Unregistered Pension Plan (JUPP) — additional benefits beyond JRPP
• Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) — Government of Alberta employees, universities, colleges
• Special Forces Pension Plan (SFPP) — police officers, chiefs, deputy chiefs of Alberta municipalities (Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Camrose, Lacombe, Taber)
• Universities Academic Pension Plan (UAPP) — academic and professional staff of Alberta universities and Banff Centre

Endowment funds (4)

• Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund — described by AIMCo as “a pioneer among sovereign wealth funds.” Established 1976 (per the historical record, though AIMCo does not publish the founding date on the client page).
• Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
• Alberta Heritage Scholarship
• Alberta Heritage Science and Engineering Research

Government funds (4)

“Invested in fixed income products for stability, liquidity and preservation of capital”:^[2]

• A.L. Sifton Estate
• Long Term Disability Bargaining Unit
• Long Term Disability Management
• Unclaimed Property Fund and Vested Property Fund

Insurance funds (3)

“Invested with an emphasis on stability and preservation of capital”:^[2]

• Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta
• Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation
• Agricultural Financial Services Corporation

Specialty funds (3)

• Alberta Health Services
• Special Areas Long Term Account
• AIMCo Supplementary Retirement Plan

Why the client roster matters.

Four observations.

LAPP is the structural anchor. The Local Authorities Pension Plan is AIMCo’s largest client. Its membership covers municipal employees, hospital workers, college and school-board staff. The plan’s investment mandate, contribution structure, and liability profile shape a meaningful share of AIMCo’s total allocation choices.

The Heritage Savings Trust Fund is structurally unique in the Maple 8 universe. No other Maple 8 manager runs a long-established provincial sovereign-wealth-style vehicle. The Heritage Fund’s investment horizon (intergenerational, with provincial royalty inflows as the historical funding source) is fundamentally different from a pension plan’s horizon. AIMCo’s allocation choices for this segment will not look the same as its choices for LAPP or ATRF.

The government-fund and insurance-fund tracks pull the aggregate risk-budget down. These segments are invested for “stability, liquidity and preservation of capital.”^[2] A non-trivial share of AIMCo’s total AUM operates under a fundamentally different risk-tolerance regime than a pure pension manager. The Total Fund versus Balanced Fund spread published by AIMCo (7.5% vs 7.6% in 2025) reflects this mix; the Total Fund is the aggregate across all client mandates, the Balanced Fund is the typical pension-client mix.

Specialty funds carry mandate-specific objectives. Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority; its investment objectives will differ from a defined-benefit pension’s. AIMCo’s operating model has to flex to the specific mandate.

What the asset-mix table does and does not say.

The 2025 asset-class returns table (above) is at the manager level. AIMCo does not publish a percentage allocation per asset class for the Total Fund in the public press release. The Total Fund weights are a function of the underlying client mix, and the 2025 Annual Report (release June 2026) is the document that will surface the cross-client allocation detail.

People.

• Ray Gilmour — Chief Executive Officer
• Justin Lord — Chief Investment Officer

Both publicly named in the 2025 results press release.^[1]

Operating footprint.

200+ investment and risk professionals. Offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, and Luxembourg.^[1] Edmonton is the headquarters; the international footprint reflects the manager’s deal-sourcing reach.

What this column tracks from here on AIMCo.

Three watch items.

1. The 2025 Annual Report when it releases in June 2026. Specifically: the client-level allocation breakdown that the press release does not publish. The Heritage Fund allocation choices, the Total-Fund-versus- Balanced-Fund mix narrative, and the asset-class percentage weights are all in that document.

2. The benchmark-construction conversation. A 2.7% underperformance versus benchmark in 2025, “largely reflecting a challenging year for private markets and the use of public market-linked benchmarks within private asset classes,” surfaces the same benchmark-construction question the cohort is dealing with. Whether AIMCo revisits its private-market benchmark methodology in 2026 is a structural posture signal.

3. The Heritage Fund’s strategic posture. The Alberta provincial government has periodically had policy conversations about the Heritage Fund’s contribution and withdrawal pattern. The fund’s long-horizon investment posture under AIMCo is shaped in part by those policy decisions; the next cycle of conversation between AIMCo and the province will be worth marking.

Comments and pointers to coverage worth folding in at [email protected].

Sources

1. Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), AIMCo Delivers 7.6% Investment Return in 2025, news release. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/aimco-delivers-7-6-investment-return-in-2025. Saved as aimco-2025-results-2026-05-29.md in the research library under pensions/2026/.
2. Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), Our Clients and At a Glance. https://www.aimco.ca/who-we-are/our-clients + https://www.aimco.ca/who-we-are/at-a-glance. Retrieved 2026-05-30; saved as aimco-clients-2026-05-30.md.
3. Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), 2025 Annual Report (scheduled for release June 2026). Will be cited in a follow-up Manager Watch piece.