Many observers of the institutional investment industry are asking about the Maple 8 pension funds’ cost-saving measures and the rationale behind that drive.

One thing is clear: cost savings are a fact, but investment returns are an ambition. In other words, cost cutting will directly lead to an improvement of the net returns. But I would argue that given the size of the assets under management, even significant costs savings will only lead to a marginal effect on net results — a few basis points at best. Investment organizations should always focus on cost efficiency, but the real driver of success is to what extent it meets its objectives.

By now, the Maple 8’s 2025 results are known and the picture is clear: the absolute return numbers are still above the discount rates but the relative returns disappointed in 2025. It’s the latter that seems to get all the attention and, moreover, the reason to grill some of the public pension plans, specifically CPP Investments. But how fair is this really? There are at least four reasons it isn’t.

Read: CPP Investments returns 7.8% for fiscal 2026, net assets total $793.3 billion

First, actual investment returns are often compared to a benchmark of public equities and bonds. In 2025, public equities — or at least a handful of technology companies — have done extremely well and performed better than private market assets. But a longer-term perspective shows that private assets have done........

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