Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) grew ILS investments 35% in 2022

Large Canadian institutional retirement fund, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), grew its allocation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments in 2022, with the asset class nearing 1% of its overall portfolio by the end of the year.

HOOPP reported in its latest annual report, that its investment allocation into insurance-linked securities (ILS) and ILS funds grew by 35% during the last year.

That was at a faster rate than the previous year, when it added 31% to the ILS portfolio.

By the end of 2022, HOOPP’s ILS asset allocation had reached C$973 million (approx. US $718.7m), up from C$721 million (approx. US $575m) at the end of 2021.

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) started allocating to insurance-linked securities (ILS), largely via insurance-linked funds, as well as some direct investments into other reinsurance-related securities, in late 2019.

Then, come early 2020, HOOPP hired Bernard Van der Stichele, an experienced ILS and reinsurance sector executive, as a Portfolio Manager for its Insurance-linked Securities allocation.

HOOPP was seen to be shifting away from an equities focus, targeting a range of alternative asset classes including insurance-linked securities (ILS), as a way to help soften the blow of the market volatility seen as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

At the end of 2019, HOOPP’s ILS allocation had reached roughly C$260 million in size, before 2020 saw HOOPP building on the ILS investment program, more than doubling it to reach C$549 million at the end of that year (which was roughly US $440m at the time).

In 2021, HOOPP continued to steadily grow the ILS strategy, building it up to C$721 million (US 575m) by the end of that year, representing growth of just over 31% in Canadian dollars.