The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) announced its funded position was 122% at the end of 2015, up 7% from 115% in 2014. This happened as its rate of return on investments slid to 5.12% for 2015, down from 17.71% in 2014. During the year, HOOPP’s net assets grew to $63.9 billion from $60.8 billion in 2014.
HOOPP also reports that its investment income for the year was $3.1 billion down from $9.1 billion in 2014. However, it exceeded its portfolio benchmark by 1.17%, or $0.7 billion.
The Plan’s 5-year return stands at 12.03%, the 10-year return stands at 9.32%, and the 20-year return at 9.46%.
Despite the lower rate of return, HOOPP’s funded position remains among the highest for Canadian pension plans, which HOOPP President and CEO, Jim Keohane, attributes to its liability driven investing approach. “Even during a year of significant economic uncertainty, HOOPP remains fully funded which means that we have sufficient resources to meet all of our current and future pension and benefit payments,” he said. “Being fully funded means we are able to consistently deliver to our members and our liability driven investing approach has been critical to ensuring the long-term health and sustainability of the Plan.”
2015 Return Highlights
Rates of Return by Asset Class (Liability Hedge Portfolio)
| Asset class | 2015 Rate Of Return |
| Nominal bonds | 8.9% |
| Real return bonds | 2.2% |
| Real estate | 8.0% (currency hedged) |
Rates of Return by Asset Class (Return Seeking Portfolio)
| Asset class | 2015 Rate Of Return |
| Private equities | 17.7% (currency hedged) |
| Public equities | 0.8% |