A method and computer-readable medium for managing memory for complex objects returned from procedure calls are described. Memory for complex objects returned from procedure calls is allotted from memory pools, which are allocated on a “per-call” basis for complex objects. Complex objects allotted from different memory pools can have overlapping lifetimes. The memory used by the complex object is straightforwardly released by deallocating the memory pool. In one aspect, the memory management of complex objects is located in the called procedures, which may be an automatically generated client stub routine for a remote procedure call.