Most Canadian pension plans don’t intend to increase their foreign exposure if the federal government scraps the 30% foreign content limit.

That’s one of the key findings of a survey of 150 pension plans released today by Aon Consulting on the elimination of the Foreign Property Rule.

The survey found that 48% of respondents stated that their current foreign exposure is between 21% and 30% of total plans assets. Of these respondents, only 27% expect to increase their foreign content exposure.

Thirty-four per cent of respondents currently have a foreign investment target allocation below 20% of total plan assets. Only 23% of the respondents who fall into this category expect to increase their foreign content exposure.

Of the respondents who expect to increase their foreign investments, only 30% expect to invest more than 40% of total plans assets outside the country.

Currently, only 19% of survey respondents have a foreign investment exposure above the old 30% limit. A significant majority (81%) of these investors use derivative-based strategies to do so. And (70% of these respondents plan to unwind these structures as a result of the elimination of the foreign content limit.

The survey was was conducted in March.