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The Pension Plan of The United Church of Canada
The plan operates as a multi-employer pension vehicle covering United Church congregations and affiliated organizations across Canada. Its sponsor relationship...
The Pension Plan of The United Church of Canada
The plan operates as a multi-employer pension vehicle covering United Church congregations and affiliated organizations across Canada. Its sponsor relationship with the national church is unusual: the United Church's wholly owned real estate development arm, United Property Resource Corporation, sits adjacent to the pension portfolio, creating a structural overlap between the denomination's operating assets and its retirement pool that few other Canadian church plans replicate. Asset-class exposure tilts toward hard assets. The plan holds interests in US-based bulk storage industrial funds alongside a diversified pooled real estate portfolio spanning Canadian mixed-use and global real estate mandates. Infrastructure commitments round out the allocation, giving the fund a footprint across North America and select global markets. The investment posture is core and core-plus on the real estate side, with infrastructure providing duration-matched liability coverage for a participant base that skews older. Andy Greene joined as Investment Committee chair in March 2023, bringing governance seasoning from his parallel role at the TTC Pension Plan. The plan maintains active memberships in the Pension Investment Association of Canada and has been a United Nations PRI signatory since 2017, with additional signatory status on the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance stewardship principles and the Canadian Investor Statement on Climate Change—a commitment to net-zero by 2050 that shapes manager selection and real-asset underwriting. The plan's structural differentiator is the church-sponsor adjacency. United Property Resource Corporation, the denomination's real estate arm, operates as a wholly owned entity of the church—meaning the pension plan can access a pipeline of church-originated property opportunities that purely third-party investors cannot replicate, while simultaneously navigating the governance complexity that comes with a faith-based sponsor whose real estate objectives may extend beyond financial returns.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
North America
Country
Canada
City
Etobicoke
Corporate office
Etobicoke, ON, Canada
Principals
Andy Greene
Chair of the Investment Committee
Anne Soh
Chair of the Pension Board
Derek Hurst
Manager, Pension and Benefits
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who chairs the investment committee and what governance experience do they bring?
Andy Greene chairs the Investment Committee as of March 2023. He brings direct pension-governance experience from his parallel role at the TTC Pension Plan, one of Toronto's major public-transit retirement funds. His appointment signals a professionalization push in the plan's investment oversight.
How does the plan's real estate exposure relate to the church's own property holdings?
The church sponsor owns United Property Resource Corporation, a wholly owned real estate development arm that sits alongside the pension plan. While the plan invests through pooled real estate funds and direct property holdings, the UPRC adjacency creates a church-affiliated property pipeline that most external LPs cannot access. The exact separation between plan assets and church operating properties is a governance consideration for external managers evaluating the relationship.
What responsible-investing commitments does the plan maintain?
The plan signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment in 2017 and holds signatory status with the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance stewardship principles and the Canadian Investor Statement on Climate Change. The climate commitment targets net-zero portfolio emissions by 2050, influencing manager selection and real-asset underwriting criteria across the real estate and infrastructure sleeves.
Does the plan invest directly or through fund commitments?
The plan employs a mixed approach: direct exposure via pooled real estate funds and infrastructure commitments, with geographic reach spanning Canadian mixed-use properties, US-based bulk storage industrial assets, and global infrastructure mandates. The fund-of-funds and LP structure dominates, consistent with a plan of its likely size bracket where internal direct-deal teams are uncommon.
Who are the participants in this multi-employer plan?
The plan covers United Church clergy, lay employees of congregations, and staff of affiliated church organizations across Canada. It functions as a multi-employer pension plan under the church's sponsorship, pooling contributions from a dispersed network of employers rather than a single corporate sponsor.
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