Canadian investors have diverging preferences for investment styles, manager approaches, portfolio construction, and manager hiring.

Equity demand will be greatest for global, emerging, and small cap equities in 2014.

Despite increased asset levels, funding rates remain depressed and largely unchanged since 2008.

Defined Contribution is expected to play an increasingly important role in the Canadian investment management business, with DC assets expected to double over the next ten years as a proportion of all retirement assets.

Almost all distributors now distribute emerging market and high yield bonds in addition to money market, domestic bonds and global bonds.

Distributors ultimately only recommend a handful of funds which their sales-people focus on.

Canadian institutional investors plan to increase real estate and infrastructure allocations further, likely at the expense of domestic equities.

Over 60% of corporate pension funds have closed the primary plan to new employees in an effort to reduce future liabilities.

The majority of investors continue to prefer structuring portfolios by traditional asset classes vs. a risk bucket approach.

Corporate funds clearly intend to further de-risk portfolios, predicting increases to fixed income and decreases to equities.