The Club Saint‑James once again welcomed Canada’s alternative investment community as AIMA hosted its fourth annual Montreal Alternative Investment Forum. With over 180 delegates in attendance, from institutional investors and asset managers to wealth advisors and service providers, the half-day, sold out event delivered timely perspectives on the evolving dynamics of alternative investing in Canada and beyond.  

Here are the key takeaways from the day:  

Portfolio Resilience in an Uncertain Environment 

Portfolio resilience was the dominant thread running through this year’s forum, with allocators and managers alike focused on how best to construct portfolios capable of performing across a range of market regimes. Speakers emphasized that traditional equity-and-duration portfolios are increasingly insufficient for meeting complex investor objectives, while commodities, absolute return strategies, and other uncorrelated sources of return were highlighted as essential building blocks for portfolios designed to hold up across a wide variety of economic environments. 

Alternatives as Portfolio Solutions, Not Asset Classes 

A recurring theme across sessions was the need to move beyond asset class labels and evaluate alternatives through the lens of what they contribute to a portfolio, whether that is diversification, income, inflation protection, or uncorrelated return. Speakers emphasized that alternatives are best understood as a toolkit of targeted exposures, each filling a specific gap that public markets alone cannot address, rather than as a monolithic allocation bucket.  

AI: Investment Opportunity and Crowding Risk 

Artificial intelligence was a major theme at this year’s forum, both as an investment opportunity and as a potential source of risk. Beyond driving strong equity market returns, the AI buildout was identified as a powerful structural catalyst for energy infrastructure, electricity demand, and critical materials. On the risk side, speakers highlighted concerns about the concentration of equity returns in a small group of AI-linked companies, as well as the possibility that AI-powered investment tools could provide similar recommendations across managers, increasing crowding in the same trades and investment themes. 

Energy Infrastructure, Power Demand, and Critical Resources 

Energy infrastructure, grid modernization, and critical materials such as copper were highlighted as some of the most compelling long-term investment themes, driven by the surge in power demand tied to the global AI buildout. Canada was identified as particularly well-positioned given its resource base and increasingly strategic role in North American energy supply. Speakers noted that the energy conversation is being reframed with ESG increasingly discussed through the lens of national resilience and supply chain security, broadening its appeal to a wider set of allocators. 

Private Credit and Liquidity Management 

Private credit remained a key topic at this year’s forum, with speakers underscoring the importance of aligning fund structures with the underlying liquidity profile of the assets they hold. Private credit and private markets more broadly remain active and in-demand, but a growing rationalization of liquidity is underway. Gating events and redemption pressure are prompting a broader reassessment, with a general preference emerging for fund structures that more honestly reflect the illiquid nature of the underlying assets.  

The Rise of Separately Managed Accounts 

Separately managed accounts (SMAs) and customized solutions were identified as a growing area of interest among institutional investors, driven by the transparency, capital efficiency, and flexibility they can offer relative to commingled fund structures. While barriers to broader adoption remain, including the operational burden for investors and managers’ concerns about ceding control over their strategies, the prevailing view was that SMAs are best understood as a partnership channel that can deepen relationships and expand institutional reach. 

The Total Portfolio Approach 

The Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) generated meaningful discussion, with speakers emphasizing that the shift from traditional strategic asset allocation is as much a cultural transition as a technical one, requiring trust, delegated authority, and a genuine commitment to outcome-oriented investing and long-term portfolio construction. While implementation complexity varies, the underlying principles are accessible to investors of different sizes, with adoption expected to unfold incrementally rather than through wholesale transformation.