It has been proposed that Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) will assume investment management responsibility for the pension assets of the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund (ATRF), the Accident Fund assets of the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB), and the non-pension investable assets of Alberta Health Services (AHS).
The following data has been compiled in response to numerous requests for information and better clarity of historical investment performance. AIMCo is honoured by this signal of confidence in our ability to serve as Alberta’s investment manager and humbled by the responsibility the decision conveys upon our team.
Comparing Historical Investment Performance
All aspects of portfolio construction must be considered to compare asset managers, including:
Respective Plan’s Reporting Period
Respective Plan’s Maturity
Respective Plan’s Funded Status
Respective Plan’s Asset Mix
Respective Plan’s Risk Tolerance
AIMCo’s Balanced Fund Composite investment performance is reported net of all fees and is most representative of the full breadth of the capabilities of AIMCo’s investment teams across all asset classes
2018 AIMCo Annual Report – Investment Performance
Adjusting Performance to Reflect a Different Year-End Reporting Dates
Critically important to comparing the relative performance of different asset managers is ensuring the same reporting period is used to assess both managers, as market conditions can result in significantly different results over certain time periods. For instance, between August 31 and December 31, 2018, the value of equity investments declined by more than 8% in most markets — Dow Jones declined by 8.9% over this period. Comparing managers on the basis of these different year-ends, yields a completely non-comparable result.
While AIMCo’s Annual Report utilizes a December 31 year-end, a restatement analysis to determine our estimated performance as at August 31, net of all fees, has been undertaken.
Below is the result of this analysis.
Scale Improves the Ability to Maximize Long-Term Net Investment Performance
AIMCo’s scale enables the organization to make direct investments on the best possible terms, integrate technological advances like artificial intelligence into investment processes and minimize costs, all of which contribute to maximizing clients’ net investment performance. Investment talent from around the world is also attracted to the scale and sophistication of the organization, further enhancing our capabilities.
AIMCo is a global investor with significant direct investments in all private market asset classes – real estate, infrastructure and private equity.
Alberta-based investment professionals manage over 80% of investments internally, thereby lowering overall investment management costs and minimizing the flow of fees paid to external managers.
AIMCo has full authority to retain and dismiss the external managers responsible for approximately $25 billion of clients’ assets under management ensuring their fiduciary obligations are met.
Clients Achieve Investment Diversity
AIMCo has built world class capabilities in all asset classes sought by clients — public equities, fixed income, infrastructure, real estate and private equity — where investment sophistication and scale are essential prerequisites to our ability to add value for our clients across global markets.
Each of AIMCo’s clients is responsible for all aspects of its asset mix to ensure the portfolios that AIMCo constructs on their behalf are 100% aligned to their long-term investment objectives.
2018 AIMCo Annual Report – Our Clients
AIMCo’s focus is on providing the best possible platform from which to serve its clients. A strong, single Alberta-based investment manager, with the competitive positioning, capabilities and efficiencies to perform even better in the future than any of the existing ones have ever achieved, will be of benefit for all Albertans.