A Discussion With HOOPP's CFO and CIO on Their 2025 Results
The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan leaned heavily on strong stock markets to report a 7.7-per-cent investment gain last year, even as returns from private markets were sluggish against a turbulent economic backdrop.
HOOPP’s one-year results trailed the benchmark return that the plan uses to measure its performance, which was 8.6 per cent. That relative underperformance was partly attributed to challenges with two specific investments – one in infrastructure and another in private credit.
But a 22.2-per-cent return from HOOPP’s portfolio of publicly traded stocks, which it bulked up last year after U.S. President Donald Trump announced broad and punitive tariffs, kept the plan’s investment gains near their longer-term average.
Over 10 years, HOOPP’s average annual return was 7.8 per cent.
Net assets increased to $132-billion last year, from $123-billion a year earlier. The plan is 109-per-cent funded, meaning it has $1.09 for every dollar it expects to pay out in pensions.
The fallout from tariffs and a period of high inflation undermined some of the bedrock economic assumptions that long-term investors such as pension plans have relied on for years. At the same time, valuations for private assets such as real estate and private equity came under pressure as buyers and sellers struggled to agree on prices and deal-making slowed.
“It was obviously a year full of lots of complexity,” HOOPP chief executive officer Annesley Wallace said in an interview. “Particularly in that context, we feel good about the 7.7-per-cent return.”
HOOPP invests on behalf of more than 504,000 members and 870 employers in Ontario’s health care sector, including nurses, medical technicians and, more recently, physicians.
In infrastructure – typically one of the most stable asset classes, producing steady cash flows – a single HOOPP investment in the U.S. renewable energy sector ran into problems. That dragged down the portfolio’s return, which was 1.8 per cent last year, underscoring the volatility in renewable energy after the Trump administration reversed course on climate policies and offshore wind development.
HOOPP did not name the problematic infrastructure investment.
Similarly, in private credit, HOOPP’s 0.9-per-cent annual return was hampered by “issuer-specific performance challenges in a single credit investment,” according to the pension plan’s annual report released on Tuesday.
Investors have been jittery about private credit as a number of lenders have grappled with ways to meet clients’ requests for redemptions, most recently U.S. giants such as Blue Owl Capital Inc. and Blackstone Inc.
“We see opportunity in private credit,” Ms. Wallace said, but she emphasized the importance of “being disciplined” about where to make loans.
All of HOOPP’s portfolios of private assets ended the year with positive returns, with private equity gaining 3.6 per cent and real estate up 1.1 per cent.
The pension plan ended 2025 with 49 per cent of its assets invested in Canada and 29 per cent in the United States.
Ms. Wallace said the plan is keen to make more Canadian-based investments if the right deals are available, some of which might be smaller in scale and faster to get off the ground than the major, nation-building projects that the federal government has flagged for fast-track approvals.
“There’s lots of active discussions,” she said.
HOOPP is also defe`nding a years-long dispute with Dutch tax authorities over transactions in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2018. A Dutch court ruled that HOOPP wrongly claimed about $340-million of dividend tax refunds through a trading strategy that took advantage of the pension fund’s favourable tax status in the country. HOOPP is appealing the decision.
“We continue to defend ourselves against those allegations,” Ms. Wallace said. “We have very strong governance and risk management.”
In recent weeks, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec reported a 9.3-per-cent gain for 2025, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) was up 6 per cent and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reported a 6.7-per-cent return on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, HOOPP announced it delivered strong 2025 results for Ontario’s healthcare community:
TORONTO, March 10, 2026 — The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan’s net assets grew to $132 billion at the end of 2025, up from $123 billion at the end of 2024. The Fund’s net return was 7.7%, and net investment income was $9.7 billion. The Plan’s funded status was 109% at the end of the year, underscoring its financial resilience and long-term ability to meet pension commitments to Ontario’s healthcare community.
HOOPP’s 10-year annualized net return was 7.8%, exceeding its 10-year benchmark of 5.9%, consistent with the absolute long-term returns required to meet the pension promise.
“Our strong results reflect the strength of our foundation, including our scale, disciplined investment approach, independent governance model and, most importantly, our people,” said Annesley Wallace, HOOPP’s President and CEO. “In an increasingly complex investment environment, we remained focused on prudent risk management and long-term value creation. Looking ahead, we are well positioned to protect the Plan’s strength and continue delivering sustainable retirement security for Ontario’s healthcare community.”
Portfolio performance
The 2025 results reflect performance across a diversified portfolio. The Fund maintained significant exposure to public equities and fixed income, supporting liquidity, flexibility and disciplined risk management amid shifting market conditions. Returns were driven by public equities, reflecting resilient corporate earnings and more accommodative monetary policy later in the year. Fixed income delivered stable income and performed well as interest rates declined, with shorter-duration bonds benefiting from rate cuts by the Bank of Canada. Private markets generated positive, though more moderate, returns in a challenging valuation environment.
Investing in Canada
A strategic foundation of HOOPP’s portfolio is its strong domestic presence. Approximately 49% of the Fund is invested in Canada across public equities, fixed income, infrastructure, real estate and private credit. This long-term investment approach supports economic activity at home while maintaining global diversification aligned with HOOPP’s pension obligations.
“Our results reflect the strength of a globally diversified portfolio, with a significant portion invested in Canada,” said Wallace. “We are proud to invest in the communities where our members live and work, while maintaining the global reach and discipline required to deliver on our long-term pension commitments.”
Serving a growing healthcare community
HOOPP surpassed 504,000 members and 870 employers in 2025, reflecting continued growth across Ontario’s healthcare sector. During the year, the Plan welcomed The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), achieving 100% participation across Ontario hospitals and expanded eligibility to incorporated physicians. In 2025, HOOPP paid out $4.1 billion in pension benefits, providing dependable retirement income and generating meaningful economic activity across Ontario.
Strategic progress
In 2025, HOOPP launched its 2030 Strategic Plan, a forward-looking roadmap focused on strengthening retirement security for Ontario’s healthcare community in an increasingly complex global environment. The strategy advances HOOPP’s vision of building a stronger financial future for members while maintaining a secure and sustainable Plan. The strategy sets out three priorities: maximizing value for members, improving the adaptability and resilience of the portfolio and evolving with Ontario’s healthcare community. It is an ambitious roadmap that strengthens HOOPP’s foundation today while preparing the Plan for the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow.
2025 financial highlights
- Net assets: $132 billion
- Net return: 7.7% (5.3% real return)
- Net investment income: $9.7 billion
- 10-year annualized net return: 7.8%
- Funded status: 109%
- Canadian investments: 49% of portfolio
- Carbon footprint reduced by 37% compared to 2021 baseline
- Membership: 504,000+ members, 870+ employers
- Pension benefits paid: $4.1 billion
- Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA): 100% CPI granted for eligible service
- Contribution rates unchanged since 2004: 6.9% on earnings up to the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) and 9.2% on earnings above the YMPE
The full 2025 Annual Report is available at Plan performance.
About the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan
HOOPP serves Ontario's hospital and community-based healthcare sector, with more than 870 participating employers. Its membership includes nurses, medical technicians, food services staff, housekeeping staff, physicians and many others who provide valued healthcare services. In total, HOOPP has more than 504,000 active, deferred and retired members.
HOOPP is fully funded and manages a highly diversified portfolio of $132 billion in assets that span multiple geographies and asset classes. HOOPP is also a major contributor to the Canadian economy, paying more than $4.1 billion in pension benefits annually.
HOOPP operates as a private independent trust, and its Board of Trustees governs the Plan and Fund, focusing on HOOPP's mission to deliver on our pension promise. The Board is made up of appointees from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and four unions: the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). This governance model provides representation from both employers and members in support of the long-term interests of the Plan.
Please take the time to read HOOPP's 2025 annual report here and highlights for members here.
Below is the table of contents for the annual report:
I think it's worth reading Chair Anthony Dale and Vice-Chair Dan Anderson's message:
I note the following:
Both the healthcare and investment landscapes continue to evolve amid significant and ongoing changes. Demand for healthcare services across Ontario is steadily increasing, shaped by demographic shifts and growing complexity of care. At the same time, the global economy continues to be shaped by persistent inflationary pressures, heightened geopolitical risk and accelerated technological disruption. In this environment, HOOPP’s long‑term focus, agility and organizational stability are more important than ever.
Throughout 2025, the Board played a pivotal role in ensuring HOOPP continued to adapt and meet future needs. The launch of HOOPP’s 2030 Strategic Plan marked an important milestone. Developed with contributions from the Board and employees across the organization, the plan sets a clear direction for the next five years. It ensures HOOPP will continue to evolve alongside the healthcare sector it serves, so the Plan remains resilient, responsive and aligned with the needs of current and future members.
As well as this:
In early 2025, the Board appointed Annesley Wallace as HOOPP’s President and Chief Executive Officer and supported her seamless onboarding, ensuring strong continuity in executive leadership and positioning the organization for continued success. Annesley brings a distinguished track record of leadership in investment management and pension administration and is well equipped to advance HOOPP’s mandate of delivering secure, lifelong pensions to Ontario’s healthcare workers.
The Board is confident that, under Annesley’s leadership, HOOPP’s strategy, governance framework and dedicated team will continue to effectively navigate future opportunities and challenges, while safeguarding and enhancing the value of the Plan.
The Board also extends its sincere gratitude to Jeff Wendling, who retired in 2025 after more than 26 years of dedicated service to HOOPP, including five years as President and Chief Executive Officer. Under Jeff’s leadership, the Plan maintained a strong funded status, navigated significant market challenges and maintained stable contribution rates while enhancing member benefits.
Next, read CEO Annesley Wallace's message:
I note the following:
The launch of HOOPP’s 2030 Strategic Plan marks the beginning of an important new chapter in our journey. Built on decades of financial strength and operational discipline, the strategic plan provides a roadmap for navigating an increasingly complex world while
remaining focused on delivering retirement security for our members.The strategy is anchored by three core pillars:
- Maximizing the value of the Plan for members by enhancing the benefits and services that matter most, while recognizing today’s realities.
- Improving the resilience and adaptability of the portfolio through a Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) to investing that balances long‑term returns with flexibility in a rapidly changing environment.
- Evolving with Ontario’s healthcare community by thoughtfully growing our membership and ensuring HOOPP remains the pension plan of choice for healthcare workers and employers across the province.
Maximizing the value of the Plan for members
HOOPP’s strong funded position enabled us to provide a full cost‑of‑living adjustment for 2024, helping retired members maintain their standard of living amid rising costs. We also maintained contribution rates that are among the lowest of Canada’s major pension plans.
In June, we announced that these rates will remain stable until at least the end of 2027, extending a remarkable record of unchanged rates since 2004. This long‑term stability remains one of the most meaningful ways we support affordability, predictability and retirement confidence for both members and employers.
Improving the resilience and adaptability of the portfolio
As higher interest rates, geopolitical shifts and technological change reshape global markets, we are evolving how we invest. Our transition to TPA reflects an evolution in how we allocate capital and manage risk across the Fund. This more integrated and flexible
framework strengthens decision making, improves our ability to respond to changes and supports sustainable long‑term value creation, ensuring the portfolio remains resilient through market cycles.
Evolving with Ontario’s healthcare community
2025 was a period of meaningful growth for HOOPP. We welcomed our 500,000th member, a milestone that reflects the continued strength of the Plan. Earlier in the year, Waterloo Regional Health Network expanded HOOPP eligibility to allow all employees to join the Plan, demonstrating the Plan’s growing reach. This momentum continued with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) joining HOOPP effective December 29, 2025. This was a significant achievement that means all hospitals in Ontario are now part of the Plan.
HOOPP employer —The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto HOOPP employer — Centenary Hospital, Scarborough Health Network. Our network of participating healthcare employers has expanded to more than 870 across the province, including eligible incorporated physicians and their employees. Each new member and employer reinforces the value of a collective approach to retirement security and demonstrates that our strategy is working: expanding access, supporting those who care for others and building a stronger financial future for Ontario’s healthcare community.
Now, some high-level comments before I get to the discussion with Michael and Reena.
Clearly the 20230 strategic plan is critically important, so take the time to understand it:
The other thing that is important to note is HOOPP formalized its total portfolio approach (TPA) last year:
In terms of asset class returns, all of them contributed positively last year:
The asset allocation is clearly weighted to capital markets (ie. public markets and a large exposure to Canada):
Still, I highly recommend that HOOPP follows best practices and posts its detailed asset mix as of the end of the calendar year, just like OTPP and others do (if I missed it, my bad).
The key thing to remember is HOOPP has a large fixed income portfolio and is more geared to public than private markets and has a lot more Canadian exposure than its peers (mostly owing to its fixed income portfolio).
And asset mix is the main driver of performance.
What else is worth noting? As shown below, HOOPP’s ratio of active to retired members declined
gradually from 2.5 in 2005 to 2.2 in 2015 and remained unchanged at 2.2 at the end of 2025:
Lastly, looking at HOOPP's Board, I see a few familiar faces like Debra Alves (former CEO at CBC Pension Plan), Julie Cays (former CIO at CAAT Pension Plan), Poul Winslow (former Senior MD and Global Head of Capital Markets & Factor Investing at CPP Investments) and John Sinclair (former CEO at Vestcor):
In short, HOOPP definitely has a very strong board of directors and good mix of experienced investment professionals and union representatives.
A strong Board is key to good governance.
On governance, the only thing I'd like to see is more transparency at HOOPP.
For example, HOOPP is the only Maple 8 fund that does not publish a comprehensive compensation section in its annual report, going over what board directors make and what senior pension executives get compensated.
HOOPP will argue it's a private trust and doesn't need to disclose this information but I would argue its members and the public deserve to know exactly how much people are being compensated there since ultimately taxpayers backstop this pension plan if something goes wrong.
Anyway, there is a lot of great information in the annual report, but I'm a stickler for transparency at all our large Canadian pensions, the more transparency, the better.
Discussion With Reena Carter and Micahel Wissell
Alright, long preamble to my discussion with CFO Reena Carter and CIO Michael Wissell but the information above situates my readers well for the discussion below.
I want to thank Reena and Michael for taking the time to speak to me, and also thank Scott White for setting up the virtual meeting.
It was the first time I spoke to Reena. I want to apologize for calling her Rita during the meeting (I'm an idiot!) and make up for it by publicly apologizing and giving my readers a good background on her:
Reena Carter joined HOOPP in 2025 as Chief Financial Officer, bringing over 20 years of financial leadership experience within Canada’s pension industry.
Prior to joining HOOPP, Reena was Senior Managing Director of Portfolio Management and Operations at OMERS where she led all operational functions, portfolio construction and the sustainable investing strategy for OMERS Infrastructure globally. Before that, she served as Executive Vice President, Investment Finance & Valuations and Global Head of Assurance & Advisory, overseeing financial reporting, valuations, planning and internal audit for OMERS.
Reena also spent 13 years with Borealis Infrastructure where she held progressively senior finance roles, including Chief Financial Officer, managing key corporate functions and supporting global investment initiatives. She began her career at KPMG, working in both the assurance and advisory practices.
Reena has served on several boards and is currently on the board of Cymbria Corporation. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business, York University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, a Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Business Valuator and a Chartered Director.
Super nice and sharp lady who only began working at HOOPP in August. Glad to have met her virtually.
Alright, I began by asking Michael to give me an overview of 2025 results which he did:
First and foremost, the point we always like to make is we are not in the money management business; we are in the pension delivery business. The plan is fully funded for the 16th year which we're really happy about. We feel that we have a good return, a solid return at 7.7%, but being fully funded is really what we're focused on. And that's three decent years in a row coming down with COVID. So that worked out well. I think that strong returns in our public equity books. I returned to the fact that, as you can tell from the marketplace, some of the privates are struggling. We're pleased that all of our privates were positive. Everything was positive, albeit not necessarily super, super positive, but on the right side of the ledger. And public or public markets portfolios continued to do pretty well last year, with a 22% return in public equity, which really carried the day for us in a bunch of ways. And our bond books kind of, again, crawling out a couple of percentage points as well help to the overall return. So fully funded, decent year are the key things.
Reena added some perspective on the member side, stating HOOPP welcomed its 500,000th member, the Waterloo Regional Health Network expanded HOOPP eligibility and The Hospital for Sick
Children (SickKids) joined HOOPP at the end of last year.
I noted HOOPP's public equity performance was really strong last year -- 22% -- trouncing most of its peers (but below the S&P/TSX Composite Index’s 32% gain). I asked Michael to explain the outperformance there.
He replied:
We really globally diversified last year. We increased our diversification, moving a little bit away from MSCI ACWI which we never really follow. We diversified a little bit more, and we added a little bit in as well, so that that also helped. From peak to trough to peak, there was quite a big rip in degrees when you account for April. So I would say better global diversification and adding into the sell-off, which was an interesting experience for us because our incoming CEO, Ainsley, had only been on the job literally days and was right there with us, supporting us as we were looking to take advantage of that opportunity. So she jumped into the frame and really contributed to helping us capitalize on that opportunity.
It always helps when the new CEO supports the investment team during turbulent times.
As Michael explained, HOOPP didn't shift out of US equities into all Canadian equities when Liberation Day hit; they just diversified more globally. "We had more countries, so Australia and Canada, we added Japan, we added Europe, and we took the US down."
I then noted HOOPP has a massive fixed income portfolio and asked Michael to explain their approach there and why it's so important.
He replied:
We still have a liability-aware investment strategy. We want to own fixed income for risk-off environments and for when the discount rate is brought low by lower interest rates, if that regime was ever to show up. But at the same time, we want to protect ourselves against an inflationary world. And that's why what makes HOOPP a little bit unique is the quantum of real return bonds. We are still of the size that we can maintain a very high proportion of our bond portfolio in real return bonds and that's what we continue to do here. We grew our proportion (in real return bonds) a little bit up to 20% which is in the annual report. But most of that would have been buying TIPS (US Treasury Inflation Protection Securities) because we weren't able to buy RRBs in Canada. As you know, those options are no longer prevalent. We continue to hope that they will return at some point, but absent having access to those in size, we did add some TIPS to the portfolio. And that's really to keep that real / nominal mix appropriately balanced, so that you've got a hedge that helps you if something blows up, but not so much nominal that you get into trouble if inflation becomes a concern.
I asked Michael and Reena to give me some flavour on private markets and Reena responded:
As you noted, private markets were positive. We delivered a billion dollars of income across those private market strategies. And we're also probably unique in that we have less allocation to private markets, so only 35% in private markets and the rest in capital markets (public markets). From that perspective, the private equity story is quite similar other plans; we're seeing they had similar issues from a valuation perspective. There's less in the market, so we're making impact. From that perspective, real estate, similar story, although I think we see some improvement across certain sectors starting to pick up, like Office, but we're still, it's still struggling, or at least it was to the end of 2025. I think our infrastructure was a bit different. We did have one specific asset that returned down, but overall that portfolio is quite resilient.
She told me the asset that got hit in Infrastructure was a renewable energy asset in the US and given policy changes there, that asset was marked down significantly.
I told Michael that I read all about the total portfolio approach in the annual report and asked him to give me more context:
You've been following this evolution in the pension industry for years. I'm a big believer in this. I've never been big on SAA (strategic asset allocation). I'm not sure exactly what magic weights work through the full economic cycle. So we're really embracing the idea of having a coordinated portfolio, where, rather than saying, XYZ private asset, here's a bucket, go fill it, working with them, and say, what are the characteristics of the assets that we really need at the total portfolio level and then being adaptable when when something goes up in the net or, or something gets overtly expensive and adjusting our weight.
We're big fans of this total portfolio approach. It's an integrated and adaptable strategy, rather than sort of being rigid around some sort of SAA approach. It requires the complete and full support of our board and strong governance. And I would say that's very much in place, and I feel very good about it.
He added:
We're just sort of formalizing that now under this nomenclature, but in my mind, it's nothing new. It's formalized in something new but I would say it's really been a part of what's made us successful over the long and medium term. And we're just going to continue on with that.
I agreed that in order for the total portfolio approach to work well, you need the right governance and the right compensation system that aligns incentives with total portfolio return objectives.
Reena jumped in:
We think that's correct. When I started on the 31st of August last year, and coming in, it is a very different approach because TPA was not being fully implemented; it's very different. I think we do look at things at a total fund level and look at opportunities as they come.
Michael added:
It's safe to say that we are increasingly focused on total fund return from a compensation perspective as well. We want to align with our members, we want to align with our sponsors. And so just to your point, you need all of these elements pulling together, and this has been a big lift. And we think we're really well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that the markets are going to present to us over the next several years.
On the 2030 strategy, Reena gave me more flavour on what Annesley is looking for:
She is really pulling on growing the three pillars that have been highlighted in the strategy. So our members, our portfolio and returns, and then the community itself. So it's really who's also unique in that we're growing plan and really leaning into that. I think that that's one thing that we've talked a lot about, and also just focusing back on what are we really delivering for the fund? It comes down to, we need to deliver 4.5% to 6.5% real returns to be able to pay pensions. So that was really something that I think shifted in terms of our focus. Obviously, we do look at benchmarks and how we compare on a relative basis, but that focus on looking at real returns is something that we're working through, making sure that we stay fully funded.
I noted Chantale Pelletier was appointed as the new Head of Global Infrastructure at the beginning of the year and said it's too soon for a new strategy there but wondedred if they're discussing anything new in infrastructure.
Michael responded:
She was a part of the delegation that went to Australia very recently. You may have seen with the Australian Prime Minister. She represented us well, as we signed along with the peer plans that cooperation agreement. It was great to have her be a part of that. I would say, Chantale is coming in and and we're pretty much assessing all of our individual strategies. We don't think big changes are coming, but we only started infrastructure in 2019, so we still have dry powder in that area.
In particular, regulated Canadian assets, where they're made available, are something we're ready, willing, and able to look at. We want to make sure that we're ready and focused on that.
I do believe, after a period of time when there weren't a lot of those (infrastructure) assets in Canada to really consider that we're going to see more of them over the next year or two. And HOOPP is going to look at all of those, as well as all the other peer plans.
I think we all see the value of those made in Canada investment opportunities where you don't take foreign exchange risk, where you understand the political climate, where you understand the legal framework, particularly regulated assets, where you might need some inflation protection. These kinds of assets look particularly compelling to HOOPP because we endeavor to pay COLA (cost of living adjustment). So we're always very careful and focused on the advent of an inflation regime, and making sure we're protecting ourselves against that.
I told him I hope he's right and he added:
I'm pretty confident. I really do sense things will have to move at a thoughtful and careful pace. I mean, you want to make sure you do the right not necessarily do them quick. But I do get the sense that things are moving forward behind this means we're seeing more and more things starting to become available. And it's not just the federal level, the provincial level, and even at the municipal level as well. We think there's going to be various opportunities to participate with our policymakers, and we remain optimistic. So from an infrastructure perspective, to answer your question, I would say we're turning our eye a little bit more domestically, and we're keeping some powder dry, waiting for those opportunities to come in due time.
On F/X risk, I asked if they hedge it completely and Micahel told me not completely but they do hedge a lot of it. He and Reena told me the depreciation of the US dollar had a negligible effect on the plan's overall results last year.
I asked Michael if he looks at where HOOPP is now, given where markets are, their
domestic exposure, the fact that infrastructure is really just ramping up, would he say they're in a really good position given the unceertain macro and geopolitical environment?
He replied:
I actually feel very good about our portfolio right now. We have an incredibly balanced portfolio. I think a good mix, again, between real and nominal bonds.
I think we are very well balanced, which is the secret to navigating these rough times. If you have a balanced portfolio and you're not over the tips of your skis, then when those are anchored, incredibly liquid and focused on liquidity, then you're able to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves.
And so, when I'm looking at the next several years, I think that this portfolio is solid and can hit on required rates of returns. And I think, looking at a year, two years, three years, there may be opportunities that present themselves where you can really lean into something, whether it's domestic infrastructure, or whether private equity becomes more compelling again, or whether it's equities, something above the equities, or bonds back up, or real yields move up higher.
I mean, you can buy some more of those, because even though these things will always present themselves, but you've got to enter into those opportunities with a balanced portfolio. And that's really where I think we are right now.
On private credit, I noted JPMorgan restricted this activity today after markdowns, but it all depends on underwriting. I asked whether this is a big portfolio at HOOPP and how they approach it.
Reena said it was a small portfolio and Michael responded to my question:
Well, I think you hit the nail on the head; it is all about underwriting. The thing about credit that people have to understand is that it's not broad data. I think that's the problem. People want to think of private credit in terms of good or bad, and the reality is, there are parameters involved.
You have to be very good at underwriting. HOOPP has been very involved in the credit space for a long period of time. I would say it's one of our core competencies in credit, not just HOOPP for the record, I would say other Maple 8 funds as well.
We feel really comfortable with our credit underwriting ability and the partners that we've chosen to underwrite credit with. I would say we've been growing our private credit space, but it's been a little bit more cautious over the last few years, as we've been just a little bit careful in terms of growing them.
It's something given the right risk-reward relationships, we're still ready to participate in. But, you hit the nail on the head. The word is underwriting. You have to underwrite very effectively, choosing the right partners, choosing the right transactions. And we didn't have a great year last year, but over the last several years, we have performed really well.
It's also the kind of product that suits a pension plan well, trying to get to that 4.5% and 6.5% real that we talked about,. Typically, we can get those targets in a private credit context. So it suits pension plans well, but again, it's just a matter of Reena's point earlier, you just want to make sure you size it right.
On absolute return strategies, both internal and external, Micahel told me last year was a "great year".
Finally, Reena told me drive for new members is going well and HOOPP is welcoming Ontario doctors to its pension plan, which is excellent news.
Alright, it's late, I'm just glad the weather hasn’t killed my power yet as we have a major ice storm in Montreal.
I once again thank Michael and Reena for taking the time to talk to me to share all these insights.
Below, Annesley Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer, reflects on HOOPP’s 2025 results and a milestone year for the Plan.
HOOPP surpassed $130 billion in net assets, remained fully funded, expanded access to eligible physicians and their employees and welcomed The Hospital for Sick Children, meaning every hospital in Ontario now offers a HOOPP pension. We also welcomed our 500,000th member.
Watch to learn how they are continuing to invest wisely and deliver on our pension promise to Ontario’s healthcare community.
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