The CIO's View: What Changed, What Held, What's Next?

For 20 years, Canadian investors collected three free gifts they never paid for -- and the bill may finally be arriving. In this episode of Insight Is Capital, Pierre Daillie sits down with Chhad Aul, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at SLGI Asset Management, the team behind the Sun Life Global Investments Granite Target Date and Target Risk funds -- managing the retirement savings of millions of Canadians. In March 2026, Chhad published five major investment themes for the year. Then a war in the Middle East, a hawkish Fed pivot, and an AI reckoning hit all at once. In this conversation, he breaks down exactly what his process did when the playbook was stress-tested -- and what advisors and investors should be doing right now. You will learn why the US dollar tailwind that quietly boosted Canadian portfolios for two decades may be reversing, how a systematic, emotion-free investment process allowed the team to step into equity risk at the exact moment markets were most fearful, why AI is not in a bubble yet but the SaaS sector already had its reckoning, what the K-shaped economy means for your portfolio and why it keeps getting more extreme, why bonds failed as a hedge during the inflation shock and where they still earn their place, how commodities and real assets delivered when everything else sold off together, and why the shift to a multipolar world is creating the best international opportunity in a generation. Chhad also gives advisors three specific moves to prioritize if they are overweight US equities today, explains where passive investing still makes sense and where it does not, and reveals which of his five themes he would stake the rest of the decade on. Whether you manage portfolios professionally or are planning your own retirement, this is a conversation about how the rules of investing are changing -- and what to do about it. CHAPTERS 00:00 - The three free gifts Canadian investors never paid for 02:16 - Chhad Aul: From engineering and quant finance to CIO 06:49 - Five themes for 2026: What held, what broke, and what the process did next 09:18 - How to buy equities when everyone else is panicking 13:50 - AI's ROI moment: Hyperscaler capex, the SaaS reckoning, and picking winners 20:12 - Strategic vs. tactical: Holding AI exposure without chasing it 24:12 - Active vs. passive investing: Where fees are actually worth paying 26:28 - The K-shaped economy: What it means for markets and inequality 32:50 - When bonds fail: What the inflation shock revealed about diversification 38:25 - Fixed income today: The 7 to 10 year duration sweet spot 40:24 - Multipolar world: European defense, Canadian resources, Chinese robotics 45:34 - Is 60% US in your portfolio still neutral? What the math actually says 48:29 - Infrastructure vs. the AI data center trade: How to tell the difference 50:35 - Three moves advisors should make right now 53:58 - How to access SLGI: Granite Funds and portfolio construction services For more: Chhad Aul on Linkedin -   / chhadaul   Sun Life Global Investments on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sun-... Sun Life Global Investments - https://www.sunlifeglobalinvestments.... Sun Life Global Investments Insights - https://www.sunlifeglobalinvestments.... #InsightIsCapital #ChhadadAul #SLGIAssetManagement #SunLifeGlobalInvestments #GraniteFunds #CanadianInvesting #InvestingIn2026 #PortfolioStrategy #MultiAssetInvesting #ActiveManagement #AIInvesting #RealAssets #CommodityInvesting #InflationHedge #FixedIncome #KShapedEconomy #GlobalDiversification #EmergingMarkets #MultipolarWorld #EuropeanDefense #CanadianStocks #WealthManagement #RetirementPlanning #FinancialAdvisor #SystematicInvesting