Best of 2025

Global markets have faced several defining moments in 2025. From the DeepSeek-driven reassessment of the US’ AI leadership to the Liberation Day tariffs which plunged global trades into uncertainties, these episodes have tested asset owners’ theses around geopolitical stability, the dominance of the tech sector, and geographical diversification.  

Top1000funds.com has always been committed to going beyond the headlines and uncovering the fundamental shifts in how asset owners construct their portfolios and run their organisations. This year our readers continued to engage with in-depth Investor Profiles showcasing the thinking of global CIOs.  

We now have readers at asset owners from 108 countries, with combined assets of $45 trillion, and we are also pleased to say that in 2025 we significantly increased our pageviews and our user base with our readers spending more time on our site. 

Top read stories 

Asset owners and managers were most interested in investors’ profiles that helped them understand where their peers and potential clients are allocating towards. These include an exclusive interview with OMERS’ chief investment officer Ralph Berg who was getting ready to deploy capital after an investment operations overview, an analysis of why Canadian giant CPP Investments CIO Edwin Cass was culling emerging markets, and a deep dive into Temasek’s pursuit for core-plus infrastructure.  

The momentum of total portfolio approach is even stronger among allocators, with the US’ biggest pension fund CalPERS the latest to formally adopt the framework. In an exclusive interview, CalPERS’ CIO Stephen Gilmore outlined why he believes TPA can add 50-60 basis points of portfolio returns.  

AI is the story that keeps on giving, as our readers were not only interested in the technology as an investment target but also as a portfolio management tool. We learned how Norges Bank Investment Management is using AI to spot portfolio managers’ biases by giving them a behavioural scorecard around their trading habits.  

Organisational design changes are big indicators of where asset owners think are the most important areas of operations. While some like AustralianSuper expanded globally, others like AIMCo and OTPP retreated.  

We tackled some big features this year, sharing with investors peer thinking on complex issues like DEI amid waves of attacks from the Trump administration, the shift away from US-centric portfolios after the Liberation Day tariffs, the impact of increasing allocations to private markets from 401(k) plans, and investing in defence amid global conflicts. 

Advocating for better practices 

This year marks the end of the Global Pension Transparency Benchmark, which Top1000funds.com conducted in partnership with CEM Benchmarking annually over the past five years.  

The GPTB measures and ranks the transparency of 75 asset owners from 15 countries, based on the factors of costs, governance, performance and responsible investment. 

We’re incredibly proud of the project’s impact across the pension industry. Some topline figures: 92 per cent of funds improved their total transparency scores; all 15 countries in 2025 achieved better scores than they did five years ago; and Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global earned a perfect transparency score of 100, two years in a row.  

But for leaders of transparency, the journey doesn’t stop here, you can read about how the GPFG and Canada’s CPP Investments will seek continuous improvements from here.  

We continue with other key knowledge-sharing initiatives including the Asset Owner Directory and the Research Hub. 

The Asset Owner Directory is an interactive tool to give readers an insight into the world of global asset owners.  It includes key information for the largest asset owners around the world, such as key personnel, asset allocation and performance, and also includes an archive of all the stories that have been written by Top1000funds.com allowing readers to better understand the strategy, governance and investment decisions of these important asset owners. 

The research hub links our events and our content with our Fiduciary Investors Symposium event series built on a close association with academia. For nearly 15 years we have been hosting the events on leading university campuses, giving delegates an immersive educational experience and challenging them to think bigger. 

Now we have developed this research hub, which brings investors the academic papers written by the university professors who have been such an integral part of our programs. The research hub allows you to search academic papers and related Top1000funds.com content by the name of an academic or university, or by subject. 

I have the pleasure of speaking with you – our global allocators and managers – every day and we know that despite the volatility and uncertainties, there’s never been a more exciting time to be an investor. The job of protecting members’ capital as a fiduciary has also never been more important.  

Thank you for being a reader, a delegate, a sponsor or a speaker, for engaging with our content and for generously sharing your knowledge.  

We’re going to do it all again next year and kick off our event calendar with the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Singapore from March 24-25, 2026. 

Hope to see you there. 

Until then, happy holidays.