Canadian findings
Canadian asset owners stand out as among the most bearish on US equities globally, with 52 per cent planning to reduce allocations – well above the North American average of 40 per cent and the global average of 34 per cent. That retreat from US concentration is matched by a distinctly disciplined posture in private markets: Canadian respondents are far more likely than their US counterparts to rotate within private markets rather than reduce commitments outright (27 per cent versus 8 per cent), and far less likely to be pulling back altogether (7 per cent versus 20 per cent).
Valuation discipline is a defining feature of Canadian private markets behaviour. Some 52 per cent of Canadian asset owners cite valuations as a primary deployment factor – significantly above the US figure of 38 per cent and the global average of 47 per cent. Transparency and valuation methodology rank equally high for Canadian respondents at 52 per cent, compared to just 27 per cent among US peers, suggesting a more rigorous, evidence-based approach to capital commitment.
On portfolio construction, Canada leads all regions surveyed. Nearly half of Canadian asset owners (47 per cent) operate a fully integrated model that combines asset-class and total-portfolio decision-making, versus 32 per cent in the US and 29 per cent globally – a finding the report explicitly attributes to Canadians being “at the forefront of the shift to integrated models.” That sophistication extends to AI: only 3 per cent of Canadian respondents say they are not assessing AI exposure across their portfolios, compared to 12 per cent in the US and 7 per cent globally, with sector-level analysis the most common approach at 53 per cent.
Infrastructure leads the allocation charge
Across the global survey, infrastructure posted the strongest net increase of any asset class in the Marsh survey, with net allocation intentions rising to +42.3%. The asset class has held the top position across Marsh’s 2023, 2025, and now 2026 studies – a multi-year pattern that suggests something more durable than a cyclical trade.
Infrastructure offers long-duration income, exposure to the energy transition and digital development, and a degree of inflation linkage that becomes more valuable when monetary policy remains unsettled. One chief investment officer at a health foundation surveyed by Marsh described doubling their infrastructure exposure in anticipation of the AI data center build-out, noting that the US was “materially underinvested in infrastructure projects, specifically energy.”