The Maple Eight (Maple-8 or Maple 8) refers to the largest eight

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides pension, retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the ...

s. The investment approach used by the Maple-8 is known globally as the 'Canadian model', in which they utilize a direct investment approach and internally manage their own assets and portfolios. Collectively, the pension funds control approximately $2.2T in assets, and are heavily influential in Canadian and global investment markets.

The Maple-8 Members

History

In 1986, when the

Government of Ontario The Government of Ontario () is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The term ''Government of Ontario'' refers specifically to the executive—political Minister ...

sought to improve its public sector pension plans, investment strategist Keith Ambachtsheer recommended

Peter Drucker Peter Ferdinand Drucker (; ; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern management theory. H ...

's model, as outlined in his 1976 book, "The Unseen Revolution”. Drucker posited creating a more diversified, globally oriented investment portfolio, handled by hired, not appointed, non-political professionals who received competitive remuneration, would lead to higher returns. The

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board () is an independent organization responsible for administering defined benefit pension plan, defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of ...

was the first to adopt the model in 1990 then other pension plans followed. In 2012, then president of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, David Denison, stated, "Canada’s system was ranked fifth best in the world in the Mercer Global Pension Index study for 2011. In truth, Canada’s high ranking has more to do with the woeful state of many other countries’ retirement systems than the robustness of our own." He added that there was room for improvement but the Maple-8's sophisticated, in-house investment model saved money. Ambachtsheer has stated the costs are average but the Canadian model generates a higher 10-year return compared to other funds. At a 2024 symposium, OMERS president, Blake Hutcheson, stated the top Canadian pensions were not a monolith, as suggested by the term 'Maple-8,' and each investment board was unique. In 2024, Mercer ranked Canada's system at 17th, down from 12th in 2023. The term 'Maple-8' evolved from an article in

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titled "Maple Revolutionaries" which originally discussed the Top Ten pension plans in Canada.

Canadian Allocations

There has been much focus on the Maple-8's allocation to Canadian investments. Although the federal government is not involved in the operation or investment strategies of these funds, they have expressed a desire to allot more capital to Canadian investments, with suggestions of a minimum allocation. Pensions argue that their global investment strategies allow them to stabilize their returns, discovering

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

in other markets and hedge against any volatility in the Canadian market, while bringing international capital into Canada.

References

{{reflist Pension funds Retirement in Canada Finance in Canada Octets