The Horseshoe Group was established in 2005 and is an independent financial services company dedicated to both the alternative fund and insurance linked security (“ILS”) market.
Horseshoe Group has in excess of USD25 billion of assets under administration and is widely regarded as Bermuda’s leading ILS fund administrator. Horseshoe has operational offices in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Charlotte (North Carolina), Gibraltar and most recently opened an office in London.
“2018 has been another exciting year of growth for Horseshoe across our fund and insurance administration divisions,” comments Brian Desmond, CSO and EVP Head of Fund Services at Horseshoe Group. “Once again we experienced considerable growth in our services to funds investing in insurance linked securities. In addition, we continue to focus on growing our US-based fund administration offering for both hedge and private equity funds.”
On the ILS fund administration side, Horseshoe’s wide range of insurance expertise allows it to provide a meaningful independent review of valuations prepared by the investment manager. Another area where Horseshoe can add value to ILS funds and their investors is in the area of portfolio allocation. Some investors may want assurance that if the manager has several funds that the allocation of deals between those funds is fair and in accordance with the offering document and will mandate the manager to contract with Horseshoe Fund Services.
Horseshoe can offer a true one-stop solution for those that want to set up a new ILS Platform, including the provision of fund administration, registered office, corporate secretarial, BSX Listing services, insurance management, accounting, transforming, underwriting, claims and actuarial services within one company.
Horseshoe was engaged by the majority of new ILS fund entrants in 2018, confirms Desmond and is in a good position to do the same in 2019. The Harvey, Irma and Maria (HIM) events in August and September of 2017 plus the wild fire events in December of 2017 resulted in 2017 being the largest loss-causing year ever and was therefore the biggest test for the ILS industry to date.
“The good news is that the ILS industry passed this test, with investors showing their commitment to the space by increasing their overall capital investment in ILS to a greater level than before the large loss events of 2017. New risk capital is coming to market as investors continue to find ILS an attractive and diversifying asset class. We are seeing investors look for new entries into the insurance and reinsurance business outside of primarily the property and property cat markets. This means new and innovative products and offerings in the life and annuity as well as the casualty space. We predict some interesting growth in these areas and overall we believe ILS will continue to become a larger percentage of the overall reinsurance market and will exceed the USD100 billion milestone by 2019.”
In Desmond’s view, the experience of the Horseshoe team is paramount when it comes to demonstrating to clients the group’s ability to service both offshore and onshore structures.
“Another important differentiator for Horseshoe is that we have a dedicated corporate services company, ‘Horseshoe Corporate Services’, so our clients can rely on Horseshoe for both pure fund administration as well as ensure that their companies are in full compliance with Bermuda, Cayman and BVI regulations,” states Desmond.
