In an article published in Financial Investigator on 25 November, 2025, Evan Clark, Senior Private Market Analyst at EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA), discusses the findings from a recent Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA) report entitled ‘‘Rethinking Benchmarks: Listed Equities Benchmarks Continue to Misrepresent Pension Fund Private Equities Performance”, that evaluates the benchmarking choices for eight large Canadian pension plans (known as the ‘Maple 8’):

“Much like 2023 results, 2024 returns from leading pension plans reflect the challenging conditions in the private equities market. The choice of benchmark – listed equities indices – offers little insight regarding performance. This leaves trustees, board members, and beneficiaries in the dark about how well their private equities portfolios are performing. This is the case using short-term data (1 year) or longer-term (5 year). Given the diverging performance of listed versus private equities, and the material differences between the two markets, it may be time for pension plans to adopt a more relevant benchmark.”

🔗 Read the full article.

🔗 Read the report.