Unlocking more global growth potential:
A conversation with the ATBIM Multi-Asset Strategies team

Robert Armstrong: Canadian investors tend to have portfolios heavily concentrated in just a few sectors—resources, financials and utilities. This is not surprising given that these industries are reflective of the economic strengths Canada is known for. But they don’t offer the same kind of growth potential as companies around the world that are actively shaping the future we’ll all be living in.

So for investors who want to look beyond the "rocks, trees and banks," global investing is a powerful way to enhance diversification. Put another way, it’s a way to access the companies your kids are probably talking about and interacting with every day—whether it’s shopping on Amazon, using an Apple device, or streaming various types of platforms like YouTube and Netflix. These are companies headquartered outside Canada, but central to our daily lives. Global investing helps correct the home-country bias Canadians may have, which is when investors understandably tend to stick to the comfort zone of investments they are most familiar with. When they understand that this is a common bias, that’s when global investing can help open the door to broader, more dynamic growth opportunities.

Most Canadian investors have significant Canadian holdings—allocating 50% of their equities to domestic companies, 18 times more than what Canada represents in the global equity market.¹ This home-country bias can limit both diversification and growth potential. The new ATB Global Equity Pool can help investors right this imbalance. It brings in high-quality companies from the US, Europe and emerging markets, with a focus on those that are driving innovation and long-term value creation.

For investors, the fund offers a simple way to diversify and strengthen an existing portfolio without needing to overhaul it. It’s also a great complement to Canadian holdings that tend to be more value-focused, seeking undervalued stocks and expecting their true worth to rise; as well as overly focused on stocks that pay income or dividends. With this pool, however, the focus is entirely on growth-orientated investments in a single, streamlined solution.

Alex Richards: The Pool will be predominantly allocated to the US, which we expect to make up around 65% of the portfolio. That’s intentional—many of the world’s most innovative and high-growth companies are based in the US, especially in technology and consumer sectors. We expect about 20% of the Pool to be held in global developed markets, primarily in Europe, which tends to be more value-oriented and offers important diversification potential. Emerging markets will represent approximately 10% of the target allocation, tapping into regions with rapidly growing populations and economic growth. We’ll also have a 5% tactical sleeve that gives us flexibility to express our macro views and adjust regional exposure. While the precise allocations may shift over time, this mix reflects where we see the most sustainable long-term growth today.

Alex Richards: We view emerging markets as the future engine of global growth. These are the regions where population growth is strongest, the middle class is expanding and economic modernization is accelerating. While the short-term path can be volatile, the long-term trajectory is compelling. That’s why we’ve allocated a meaningful (approximately) 10% of the fund to emerging markets. This gives investors exposure to a higher-growth part of the world that isn’t always accessible through traditional Canadian or other developed market funds. Over time, we believe this allocation will play an important role in delivering stronger returns across the full market cycle.

Robert Armstrong: We’re focused on companies that are shaping the future that we, our kids and our grandkids will live in—with brands that people, especially younger generations, engage with daily. Think, Meta Platforms, Amazon or Microsoft. These companies represent more than just “tech”—they’re the backbone of how people shop, work, communicate and play today and over the long term.

What’s interesting is that many of these names are actually categorized outside traditional tech sectors—Amazon is classified as a Consumer Discretionary company, for example—so our growth exposure is across a broader range of sectors than it might seem at first glance. What unites these companies is not what sector they’re in, but their forward-thinking approach and innovative business models they possess. That’s what we’re targeting: Companies building tomorrow’s economy, not clinging to yesterday’s playbook.

Steve Xu: Accessing global markets requires more than just research—it takes local knowledge, on-the-ground experience and regional context. Our independent managers bring that experience and global reach to the table. Each one is focused on a specific market or region, with deep benches of analysts and a consistent investment philosophy. By partnering with firms that live and breathe their local markets around the world, we can capture unique insights and opportunities that broader mandates might miss. It also lets us build a portfolio with a blend of different perspectives, styles and regional strengths—which adds depth and balance to the overall strategy.

Steve Xu: We use a rigorous, multi-layered process—that functions independently at ATBIM—to screen, assess and select our investment managers. It starts with quantitative screens—filtering for strong investment performance, consistency and risk management—but we also place heavy emphasis on qualitative factors like their investment philosophy, team structure and cultural fit with our own ATBIM values. There’s also a thorough interview and due diligence stage, where we go deep on how each team works, how decisions are made and how they handle risk.

For example, within emerging markets, we look for managers with a demonstrated ability to navigate the complexity of fast-growing economies and to uncover real growth opportunities—not just the headline stories. Every investment manager we choose has to align with our disciplined, independently minded approach to investing, spanning all the solutions on our platform.

Steve Xu: Because they’re vetted through our rigorous, time-tested process, we trust our investment managers to do what they do best. They’re specialists with strong track records, and we don’t interfere with their day-to-day decision making. That said, we do provide active, ongoing oversight through our tactical sleeve, which is managed directly by us, the ATBIM Multi-Asset Strategies Team. Every month, we revisit our house view—which regions or sectors we like, where we see opportunity or risk—and we make tactical portfolio-level adjustments, that are expressed through a curated selection of ETF holdings. It’s a way to stay nimble and responsive to changing market dynamics without disrupting the core strategies the investment managers are running.

Steve Xu: Risk management is embedded into every step of our process—from forming our global macro house view to selecting high-quality managers to constructing strong portfolios. Before we make any allocation, we assess all potential risks. After implementation, we do post-trade analysis to understand what worked and what didn’t. That continuous feedback loop helps us refine our decisions over time. Even though this fund leans toward growth, we apply the same rigorous process that underpins all our strategies. And if we see a region or sector that presents excessive risk, we can adjust quickly using our tactical sleeve, which allows us to fine-tune exposures using ETFs. When it comes to risk management, our goal is to pursue growth responsibly—never at the expense of quality or long-term discipline.

Alex Richards: We’re not in the business of chasing fads or betting on speculative assets. You won’t see things like bitcoin in this fund. At the same time, we’re also not going to the other extreme and playing it ultra-conservatively. Our focus is on high-quality, forward-looking companies with real business fundamentals. That means we’re not aiming for the flashiest returns, but we also won’t expose investors to unnecessary risk. The goal is to provide a well-rounded, growth-oriented portfolio that clients can feel confident holding across different market environments.

Steve Xu: What sets us apart is our team-based approach. We don’t rely on a single star manager. Instead, we bring together a mix of strong investment managers with deep resources, then apply an additional layer of oversight and strategy from our own Multi-Asset Strategies Team. Our internal decision-making process is collaborative, rigorous and sometimes even heated—that healthy debate helps us arrive at better, more balanced outcomes. When you invest in this fund, you're not betting on one person's view. You're getting a whole ecosystem of insight, accountability and experience working together to deliver long-term performance.

That diversification of thought and experience is what separates us. We use that edge to power greater possibilities for our clients and build resilient solutions that can perform throughout the whole market cycle.