OMERS, the funded-ratio outlier.

OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is the fifth Maple 8 primer in the Manager Watch sequence. It is the cohort’s funded-ratio outlier at 99% (every other Maple 8 plan with a published funded ratio sits above 100%), and the asset-class composition + the operating-business structure (notably Oxford Properties as a wholly-owned real-estate operator) make it structurally distinct from the cohort average. This primer reads the position.

The 2025 numbers, on the record.

OMERS published 2025 calendar-year highlights as at December 31, 2025:^[1]

• Net assets $145.2 billion at year-end 2025 (up from $138.2 billion at year-end 2024)
• Net return 6.0%
• Net investment income $8.2 billion
• Funded ratio 99%
• Real discount rate 3.70%
• 10-year return 7.1% (versus 10-year benchmark 7.3%)
• $26 billion in green investments
• 65% reduction of 2024 WACI versus 2019 baseline

The 99% funded ratio.

OMERS is the only Maple 8 plan with a published funded ratio below 100% in the 2025 reporting cycle. OTPP closed 2025 at 111% (and is in its 13th consecutive year fully funded);^{[Manager Watch — OTPP 2025 primer]} HOOPP closed at 109% (and 16 years fully funded);^{[Manager Watch — HOOPP primer]} BCI’s six pension clients ranged from 103% to 133%;^{[Allocators Desk — Big-Eight snapshot]} CPP Investments’ sustainability is reported through the Office of the Chief Actuary triennial review rather than as a single funded ratio.^{[Manager Watch — CPPIB primer]}

A 99% funded ratio is not a crisis. Single-percentage-point movements in the discount rate or in asset returns can move the published number on either side of 100%. The point worth marking is structural: the cohort spends time at 105%-115% funded; OMERS is at the lower edge of that range and below the cohort median. The 2026 result will show whether the direction is toward 100% or away from it.

The 3.70% real discount rate is the technical context. A lower real discount rate produces a higher liability value; a higher one produces a lower liability value. The 3.70% figure is the OMERS choice for the 2025 valuation cycle. Whether the Plan moves it for 2026 is itself a funded-ratio signal.

The long-horizon benchmark gap.

OMERS published its 10-year actual return as 7.1% versus a 10-year benchmark of 7.3%.^[1] A 20-basis-point per-annum deficit over a decade is small in magnitude. It is also, alongside CPP Investments’ +0.7% per annum and HOOPP’s +1.9% per annum, an indicator that OMERS is on the lower end of the cohort’s published 10-year value-add.

The cohort comparison from the Big-Eight snapshot piece holds:^{[Allocators Desk — Big-Eight snapshot]} HOOPP +1.9%, CPP +0.7%, CDPQ +0.3%, BCI +0.3%, OMERS -0.2%. OTPP and AIMCo do not publish a 10-year benchmark on the public press releases; PSP F2025 is not yet captured in the current extract.

The members and the impact picture.

OMERS serves 665,000 total members (369,000 active, 210,000 retired) and added 44,132 new enrolments in 2025.^[1] Member service satisfaction was 97%. The Plan paid $6.8 billion in pension benefits in 2025 and the average annual overall pension in pay was $31,615.^[1]

A 2025 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis published in the OMERS 2025 Annual Report situates the Plan in the Ontario economy: 135,200 jobs supported across the province (about 30,000 held by people under 30 and almost 40,000 in rural communities), 832,000+ Ontarians benefiting from OMERS-supported income (1 in 11 households), a $15.3 billion contribution to Ontario’s economy, and $4.2 billion in provincial and federal tax revenue generated by OMERS activity.^[1] The Plan accounts for 11% of all private retirement income in Ontario.^[1]

The CANCEA-published member-versus-general-population comparisons are the kind of data the publication will return to: OMERS members self-report life satisfaction of 7.9/10 versus 4.7/10 for the general population; 74% of retired DB members report preparedness for a $10,000 unexpected expense versus 34% for the general population; 61% of OMERS retirees report volunteering in their communities versus 45% of those with no pension.^[1] These are the kinds of long-horizon outcomes that a defined-benefit plan can be measured against beyond the investment-return numbers.

The operating-business structure.

OMERS publishes a Senior Executive Team that includes:^[2]

• Blake Hutcheson — President and Chief Executive Officer
• Bob Aziz — Chief Operating Officer
• Deb Barnes — Chief Risk Officer
• Ralph Berg — Chief Investment Officer
• Celine Chiovitti — Chief Pension Officer
• Michael Hill — Executive Vice President & Global Head of Infrastructure
• Rodney Hill — Global Head of Technology, Data and Security
• Michael Kelly — Chief Legal & Sustainability Officer
• Chris Morley — Vice President, Government Relations
• Nancy Nazer — Chief Human Resources Officer
• Shelagh Paul — SVP, Head of Global Communications
• Eric Plesman — President and CEO, Oxford Properties Group
• Jonathan Simmons — Chief Financial and Strategy Officer

Two structural notes from this list.

Oxford Properties Group is run as a separately-led operating business under OMERS. Eric Plesman holds the President & CEO title for Oxford, which is OMERS’ wholly-owned global real estate platform. This is materially different from a peer that holds real estate as a portfolio allocation managed by an internal team; Oxford operates as an independent firm with its own brand, leadership, and capability that happens to be owned by OMERS. The structure matters when reading the real-estate line on the balance sheet.

The Chief Pension Officer role is separated from the Chief Investment Officer role, which is consistent with the Maple 8 pattern that separates the plan-administration function from the investment-management function. The combination of named-CPO + named-CIO + a publicly-named COO suggests OMERS organises the operating business along three peer tracks (investments, pension administration, operating support) rather than as a pure asset-manager.

What the published asset-class breakdown does and does not say.

The OMERS 2025 highlights page does not publish a single asset-class-by-percentage table in the public extract. The published $26 billion green-investments figure is a sustainability tag, not an asset-class total. Reading the asset-class composition requires the full 2025 Annual Report PDF, which is referenced in the saved research-library extract.^[1] A future Manager Watch piece will draw on the PDF directly for the percentage breakdown.

What this column tracks from here on OMERS.

Three watch items.

1. The 2026 funded ratio. Whether OMERS moves through 100% in 2026 is the headline number the publication will be watching for. The 3.70% real discount rate and the cohort’s typical pattern of single- to mid-single-digit-percentage funded-ratio movement per year suggest the result is in striking distance of 100% in either direction.

2. The Oxford Properties strategic posture. Cohort-wide real-estate weakness has been visible across the 2025 reporting cycle (OTPP -3.1%, AIMCo -2.2%, BCI -1.8% on Real Estate Equity). Oxford’s separately-led structure means OMERS’ real-estate line is the most visible operating- business test of how a Maple 8 peer responds to the asset-class environment. The Oxford team’s commentary on positioning will surface in the next operating cycle.

3. The 10-year benchmark relationship. A second decade of slight benchmark underperformance, paired with a funded ratio that sits below the cohort median, would be a structural conversation the member-side may want to have. The 2026 result is the next signal.

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

Sources

1. OMERS, 2025 Annual Report Highlights. https://www.omers.com/2025-annual-report/highlights. Net asset figure ($145.2B end-2025) and member economic-impact figures confirmed from the linked 2025 Annual Report PDF on assets.ctfassets.net. Retrieved 2026-05-29; saved as omers-2025-highlights-2026-05-29.md in the research library under pensions/2026/.
2. OMERS, Who We Are. https://www.omers.com/who-we-are. Retrieved 2026-05-30; saved as omers-leadership-2026-05-30.md.
3. OMERS, 2025 Annual Report (PDF). https://assets.ctfassets.net/iifcbkds7nke/7nEIODfIUwoXeiND7g3k5T/0d2c29cf16847a16cd450a7ed06e2315/OMERS_2025_AR_.pdf. Cited as the full document; asset-class breakdown will be read in a follow-up piece.