BCE ran the company at substantial loss for the next five years and sought a buyer in the summer of 1993.

In the spring of 1994, the Bank of Nova Scotia acquired the company for $292 million, and since that time it has operated as a subsidiary.

[1] In the 1960s, a chain of stock purchases saw Montreal Trust come under the control of financier Paul Desmarais.

In 1963, Gelco acquired half the shares on the Imperial Life Assurance Company for $10 million, and shortly thereafter, increased its stake to 52 percent.

[5] The shares of Investors, Imperial, and Montreal Trust later were placed under the ownership of the Trans-Canada Corporation Fund, which Desmarais had acquired in 1965.

[9] At Montreal Trust's annual meeting in May of that year, BCE installed four directors on the board, while the representatives from Power Corporation stepped down.

[12] In the summer of 1993, BCE hired Dominion Securities to seek a buyer for Montreal Trustco.