We hear plenty about how lucky Australia is to have its $3.9 trillion superannuation sector, but when it comes down to how those funds are invested, the envy of the world is Canada.

Over the past three decades, Canada’s big public pension funds have pioneered the large-scale, global and diversified investment of retirement benefits, building big in-house investment teams that can mix it with the top asset managers in most major asset classes globally. The Canadians are the benchmark.