1832 Asset Management Q1 2026: A $27.6B Bet on the S&P 500

Active managers exist to pick stocks. So when one of them takes a quarter of its entire reported portfolio and pours it into the most plain-vanilla index product on the market, it is worth a closer look. In the first quarter of 2026, 1832 Asset Management — Scotiabank's wholly-owned in-house manager — opened a brand-new $27.64B position in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). That single holding is 25.44% of its $108.78B reported book (Form 13F-HR filed 2026-05-14, accession 0001062993-26-002620).

The move is striking precisely because of who made it. 1832 Asset Management traces its roots to 1877, runs Dynamic Funds and ScotiaFunds, and ranks among Canada's five largest fund families. Its stated philosophy is disciplined, long-term, diversified active management. A NEW 25% allocation to a passive S&P 500 wrapper is, on its face, the opposite of bottom-up security selection — and it landed in the same quarter the firm's overall 13F equity book fell 17.2% to $108.78B from $131.31B.

Read those two facts together and a picture emerges. The firm did not blow up its core Canadian franchise — its anchor positions in Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and Canadian National Railway (CNI) held roughly steady. Instead, it appears to have routed a large block of capital into broad US large-cap beta via SPY, the cleanest possible way to add S&P 500 exposure without making 500 individual security decisions.

One Holding, A Quarter of the Book

To appreciate the scale: the SPY position at $27.64B (42.5M shares) is nearly ten times the size of the next-largest holding. Toronto-Dominion, the No. 2 position, is $2.83B at 2.61% of the portfolio. Royal Bank sits at $2.67B, Microsoft (MSFT) at $2.34B, Canadian National at $1.92B. After the ETF, no single name exceeds 2.61%.

This is the defining shape of 1832's 2026Q1 filing — one enormous index sleeve sitting on top of a diversified Canadian-and-US blue-chip core. The remaining ~75% of the book reads exactly as you would expect a large bank-affiliated active manager to look: Canadian financials (TD, Royal Bank), rails (Canadian National), energy infrastructure via Enbridge (ENB), the alternative-asset compounder Brookfield (BN), and a measured slice of US mega-cap tech in Microsoft and Amazon.

The AUM Step-Down

The 17.2% quarter-over-quarter decline in reported book value is the second headline. 1832's 13F equity total had bounced in a $108B-$131B band for two years — $123.11B in 2024Q2, dipping to $110.02B in 2025Q1, rebounding to $128.16B by 2025Q2 and $131.31B at the end of 2025 — before the step-down to $108.78B in 2026Q1.

A drop of this size, paired with a simultaneous new $27.64B ETF position, suggests a reallocation rather than pure outflows: capital that previously sat in individually-held names or other vehicles consolidated into a single index sleeve, while the long tail of positions was pruned. The holdings count edged down to 647 from 687 — already a relatively compact book for a manager of this size, and now even more top-heavy thanks to the SPY block.

What Moved Underneath

Beyond the headline ETF, 1832 was not idle in single names. It added 33% more Nvidia (NVDA), bringing the position to $1.65B, and 12% more Microsoft. It also opened a second new position of note: a $1.39B stake in Netflix (NFLX) at 1.28% of the book. The Canadian core was steadier — Toronto-Dominion trimmed 6%, Brookfield trimmed 6%, while Royal Bank, Canadian National and Enbridge held roughly flat.

The combined signal is a manager adding broad US beta (SPY) and select US growth (Nvidia, Netflix, more Microsoft) on top of an unchanged Canadian dividend-and-infrastructure foundation. For investors watching where Canadian institutional money is leaning, that is a meaningful tell: the home-market blue chips stayed, but the marginal new dollar in 2026Q1 went to the United States — and a remarkable amount of it went to the index itself.

How to Read an ETF Position in a 13F

A SPY holding inside an active manager's 13F is not necessarily a confession that stock-picking failed. Large managers use index ETFs for cash equitization, transition management, and as a liquid placeholder while capital is deployed or strategies are restructured. A 25% allocation is large by any standard, but it can reflect a deliberate decision to hold broad market exposure rather than a permanent abandonment of active selection. The honest read: 1832 ended 2026Q1 with one foot firmly in its traditional Canadian-blue-chip book and the other in passive US large-cap beta. Whether the SPY sleeve is a temporary parking spot or a lasting strategic shift is the question the 2026Q2 filing will answer — compare the SPY holder base next quarter to see if the position grows, shrinks, or unwinds.

FAQ

What is 1832 Asset Management?

1832 Asset Management L.P. is the wholly-owned in-house investment manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank). It runs Dynamic Funds and ScotiaFunds, traces its roots to 1877, and is one of Canada's five largest fund families, with a disciplined long-term active investment philosophy.

Why does 1832 Asset Management hold $27.6B in the SPY ETF?

1832 opened a new $27.64B position in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF in Q1 2026, equal to 25.44% of its reported book. Large managers use index ETFs for broad market exposure, cash equitization and transition management. The position may represent a deliberate allocation to US large-cap beta or a liquid placeholder during a reallocation.

How large is 1832 Asset Management's 13F portfolio?

1832 reported $108.78B across 647 positions for the quarter ended 2026-03-31, down 17.2% from $131.31B the prior quarter. The decline coincided with the consolidation of capital into a single $27.64B SPY index sleeve.

What are 1832 Asset Management's top stock holdings?

After SPY, 1832's largest holdings are Toronto-Dominion Bank ($2.83B), Royal Bank of Canada ($2.67B), Microsoft ($2.34B), Canadian National Railway ($1.92B), Amazon ($1.74B) and Brookfield ($1.74B) — a Canadian-blue-chip core blended with US mega-cap tech.

Did 1832 Asset Management add any new positions in Q1 2026?

Yes. Besides the new $27.64B SPY position, 1832 opened a $1.39B stake in Netflix (1.28% of the book) and added 33% more Nvidia shares, lifting that position to $1.65B.