A publication for the Canadian buy-side community.https://thebuyside.ca/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/cross-house-panel-readout-2026-06-11/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/cross-house-panel-readout-2026-06-11/Seven houses, eight asset classes, one curve. Where the published numbers sit, where the houses disagree, and what carries a caveat.Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskallocators-deskcmecross-house-panelexpected-returnshttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/cme-methodology-2026-q1/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/cme-methodology-2026-q1/Most published capital-market expectations come from one house with one process. A single number from a single methodology is a starting point; what helps an allocator more is the spread between methodologies on the same asset. The CME Tracker publishes that cross-engine view today, and will add the cross-house panel as the external publications are folded in. Here is how the methodology works.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskmethodologycmeeditorialhttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-buyside-reads-us-coverage/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-buyside-reads-us-coverage/The Canadian institutional allocator's reading list is, with two or three exceptions, written by people in New York and London for an audience in New York and London. The cross-border CAD lens, when it surfaces, is somebody else's framing of a Canadian story.Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskeditorialcanadapublishing-landscapehttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-asset-manager-independence-shrinkage/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-asset-manager-independence-shrinkage/BMO announced its acquisition of Burgundy Asset Management on June 19, 2025 for approximately $625 million in BMO shares, with the deal completed November 3, 2025. The transaction is the most recent in a multi-year pattern of Canadian banks absorbing the country's leading independent investment counsel firms. This piece reads the deal, the cohort context (Jarislowsky Fraser at Scotiabank, MD Financial at Scotiabank, CI Financial going private), and what the trend leaves on the table for the few remaining independents.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskallocators-deskcanadam-and-aconsolidationasset-managersburgundybmohttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/aimco-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/aimco-primer-2026-05-30/Alberta Investment Management Corporation closed 2025 with $194.7 billion in client AUM, a 7.5% Total Fund return and a 7.6% Balanced Fund return, both underperforming benchmarks by 2.7%. AIMCo's distinguishing structural feature is its client roster: nine Alberta public-sector pension plans (LAPP is the largest), four endowment funds including the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund (described by AIMCo as 'a pioneer among sovereign wealth funds'), four government funds, three insurance funds, and three specialty funds. This primer reads the structure.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchaimcocanadaalbertapensionsmaple-8https://thebuyside.ca/managers/bci-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/bci-primer-2026-05-30/British Columbia Investment Management Corporation closed fiscal 2025 (year ended March 31, 2025) with $295 billion in gross AUM and a 10% combined-pension-plan return. It serves 32 BC public-sector clients including an Indigenous settlement trust, manages roughly 85% of assets in-house, and has produced $9.3 billion in cumulative value-add since inception. This primer reads the structure.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchbcicanadabritish-columbiapensionsmaple-8https://thebuyside.ca/managers/burgundy-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/burgundy-primer-2026-05-30/Burgundy Asset Management was a leading independent Canadian asset-manager boutique from its 1990 founding through 2024. In 2025, Burgundy joined BMO Financial Group and now operates as a separate line of business inside the bank, maintaining the investment philosophy, people, and client-first principles that defined the firm for over three decades. This primer is the structural read of the transition and the firm.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchburgundybmocanadaasset-managersstructural-changehttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/beutel-goodman-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/beutel-goodman-primer-2026-05-30/Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd. is a five-decade Canadian fundamental-value asset manager headquartered in Toronto. The ownership structure is the structural feature worth marking: 51% broadly owned by employees, 49% minority-held by the US publicly-listed Affiliated Managers Group. The investment philosophy is fundamental bottom-up value with an explicit focus on capital preservation and downside protection. This primer is the structural read.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchbeutel-goodmanamgcanadaasset-managershttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/cdpq-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/cdpq-primer-2026-05-30/La Caisse, formerly CDPQ, is the world's twentieth-largest asset owner and the second-largest Canadian institutional pension manager, with CAD $517 billion in net assets at the end of 2025. Its structure is distinct from the federally-chartered Canadian peers: it manages 48 separate Québec public-sector depositors, of which the nine largest account for 96.6% of net assets, and it operates under the Act respecting the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec rather than federal pension legislation. This primer reads the structure.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchcdpqla-caissecanadaquebecpensionshttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/fiera-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/fiera-primer-2026-05-30/Fiera Capital is a publicly-listed Canadian asset manager that frames itself as a 'pure-play asset manager, independent by design.' Six named subsidiary platforms cover real estate, infrastructure, infrastructure debt, private debt, private credit, and the Comox agricultural-private-markets platform. This primer is the structural read; the financial numbers come from Fiera Capital's investor-relations disclosures, which a follow-up Manager Watch will read directly.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchfiera-capitalcanadaasset-managerstsx-listedhttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/mawer-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/mawer-primer-2026-05-30/Mawer Investment Management is the natural opening profile for the asset-manager column. The Calgary-headquartered, privately-owned, independent firm manages approximately $66.8 billion in assets across all major asset classes for individual and institutional investors. The 'Be Boring. Make Money.™' investment approach has been the firm's stated discipline for over 50 years. This primer is the structural read.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchmawercanadaasset-managersboutiquehttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/hoopp-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/hoopp-primer-2026-05-30/The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan is the smallest of the Maple 8 by net assets, the second-smallest membership population in the cohort, and the standout long-horizon performer against benchmark, by a wide margin. The 10-year annualized return is 7.8% versus a 5.9% 10-year benchmark, a 190-basis-point per-annum spread that is the largest in the cohort. This primer reads the structure that produced that result.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchhooppcanadapensionsmaple-8https://thebuyside.ca/managers/letko-brosseau-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/letko-brosseau-primer-2026-05-30/Letko Brosseau was founded in 1987 by Peter Letko and Daniel Brosseau, both senior managers at the CN Investment Division before launching the firm. The investment approach has been pursued unchanged for 38 years across all asset classes, the firm uses no external managers, and the operating posture is investment-management-only. This primer is the structural read.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchletko-brosseaucanadaasset-managersboutiquehttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/omers-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/omers-primer-2026-05-30/The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System closed 2025 at $145.2 billion in net assets, a 6.0% net return, and a funded ratio of 99%, the only one in the Maple 8 cohort below 100%. The 3.70% real discount rate gives the technical context, the 10-year 7.1% versus a 7.3% benchmark shows the long-horizon read, and the Oxford Properties subsidiary plus the separately-published infrastructure head role both signal how OMERS organises its business. This primer reads the position.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchomerscanadapensionsmaple-8https://thebuyside.ca/managers/psp-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/psp-primer-2026-05-30/Public Sector Pension Investment Board, known as PSP Investments, closed fiscal 2025 (year ended March 31, 2025) with $299.7 billion in net assets under management, a 13.2% year-over-year AUM increase, and a position as the third-largest among Canada's public pension investors. This primer is the structural read; the F2025 detailed performance numbers come from the 2025 Annual Report (PDF), and the F2026 cycle had not yet released at the time of publication.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchpspcanadafederalpensionsmaple-8https://thebuyside.ca/managers/prime-quadrant-primer-2026-05-30/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/prime-quadrant-primer-2026-05-30/Prime Quadrant is a Toronto-headquartered multi-family office serving roughly 225 ultra-high-net-worth families, with approximately CAD $23 billion (USD $16.2 billion) in Assets Under Consultation as of Q3 2024. The operating posture is unusually clean for the MFO category: flat-fee compensation, no proprietary products, retainer-based engagement, and a proprietary Four-Quadrant Framework that organises the practice around capital, person, family, and impact. This primer is the structural read.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchprime-quadrantmfotorontofamily-officeshttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-big-eight-pensions-2026-snapshot/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-big-eight-pensions-2026-snapshot/CPP Investments closed fiscal 2026 at $793.3 billion. CDPQ closed 2025 at CAD $517.3 billion. PSP closed fiscal 2025 at $299.7 billion. OTPP closed 2025 at $279.4 billion. BCI closed fiscal 2025 at $251.6 billion in net AUM. AIMCo closed 2025 at $194.7 billion. OMERS closed 2025 at $145.2 billion. HOOPP closed 2025 at $132 billion. Together: roughly $2.6 trillion in Canadian institutional capital, with the most recent year's returns ranging from 6.0% to 13.2%.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskallocators-deskcanadapensionsbig-eightsnapshothttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-top-three-and-wealth-substrate/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/canadian-top-three-and-wealth-substrate/CPP Investments closed fiscal 2026 at $793.3 billion, Ontario Teachers' closed 2025 at $279.4 billion, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec closed 2025 at $517.3 billion. Underneath those, the Statistics Canada Survey of Financial Security puts the median Canadian family net worth at $519,700. This piece reads the top of the institutional pyramid against the household substrate the column will return to.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskallocators-deskcanadapensionscppibotppcdpqstatcanhttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/welcome/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/welcome/What this publication is, who it is for, and what readers can expect from the first issue forward.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskeditoriallaunchhttps://thebuyside.ca/desk/family-office-research-wave-2025/https://thebuyside.ca/desk/family-office-research-wave-2025/Within roughly five months of 2025, UBS, Citi, BNY Wealth, J.P. Morgan, and the RBC plus Campden Wealth pair each published a major family-office survey. Read individually, each tells a different story. Read together, they describe a buy-side that is reducing return expectations, leaning further into private markets and active management, accelerating AI adoption, and quietly turning to succession planning at a pace none of the prior years' surveys flagged.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Allocators Deskallocators-deskfamily-officeresearch-roundupsurveys2025https://thebuyside.ca/managers/cppib-primer-2026-05-29/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/cppib-primer-2026-05-29/What CPP Investments is, where it came from, how it is governed, and what readers can expect from the column's future coverage of one of the largest allocators in the world. A primer; numerical performance and current portfolio analysis are deferred to a separate piece grounded in the F2026 Annual Report.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchcppibcanadapensionsprimerhttps://thebuyside.ca/managers/otpp-2025-primer-2026-05-29/https://thebuyside.ca/managers/otpp-2025-primer-2026-05-29/Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan released its 2025 results on March 10, 2026: 6.7% total-fund net return, $279.4 billion in net assets, $31.2 billion preliminary funding surplus, 13th consecutive year fully funded. Underneath the headline, the asset-class breakdown tells the story: venture growth +30.2% (including Anthropic Series F), private equity -5.3% on disciplined year-end valuation marks, and an honest -5.0% versus a benchmark concentrated in the AI-tied US large-caps.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTManager Watchmanager-watchotppcanadapensions2025-results