HOOPP, the long-horizon outperformer.

A note on the cohort name. HOOPP describes itself as part of “Canada’s Maple 8 pension plans” on its own About page,^[1] and the term is industry-standard. The Manager Watch column will use “Maple 8” and “Big-Eight” interchangeably from this point forward; both refer to the same eight-manager Canadian institutional pension cohort.

HOOPP is the fourth primer in the Maple 8 sequence, following CPP Investments, Ontario Teachers’, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Of the four covered so far, it is the structurally simplest: one defined-benefit plan, one employer-class (Ontario hospitals plus community-based healthcare), one set of liabilities. The performance read follows from that simplicity.

What it is, on the record.

HOOPP was founded in 1960 by the Ontario Hospital Association.^[1] After more than 65 years of pension delivery, it serves “more than 504,000 members and 870 employers across the province, including over 95% of primary care healthcare workers and every hospital in Ontario.”^[1] It supports 138,000+ retirees and pays approximately $4 billion in pension benefits annually.^[1]

Its 2025 calendar-year reported figures (released March 10, 2026):^[2]

• Net assets grew to $132 billion at the end of 2025 (from $123 billion at end of 2024)
• Net return 7.7% (5.3% real return)
• Net investment income $9.7 billion
• Funded status 109%
• Fully funded since 2009 (16 consecutive years)^[1]

The “fully funded since 2009” line and the 109% current ratio are the plain markers of HOOPP’s positioning. Twenty-plus years of stable contribution rates (6.9% on earnings to the YMPE; 9.2% above) reinforce the same point.^[2]

The long-horizon outperformance.

HOOPP’s 10-year annualized net return is 7.8% versus a 10-year benchmark of 5.9%.^[2] That is a 190-basis-point per-annum value-add over a full decade, net of all costs. It is the largest 10-year value-add in the Maple 8 cohort.

Reading the same horizon across the cohort:

The HOOPP spread is structurally different from the rest of the cohort. This is partly definitional, partly methodological, partly real. The benchmark a plan chooses is a strategic choice, and HOOPP’s benchmark construction (informed by its Liability-Aware Investing posture) is oriented to the liability stream, not to a public-market proxy. A liability-aware benchmark over a decade in which public-equity benchmarks ran high (driven by US tech) will tend to look lower than a public-market-tilted benchmark. So HOOPP’s apparent outperformance is in part a benchmark-design feature, not just an investment-execution outperformance.

That qualification matters, but it does not erase the result. The fund hit its liability target and still grew net assets by $9 billion in 2025 alone (from $123B to $132B), with a 109% funded ratio at the end. The 10-year value-add is the cohort’s biggest, regardless of how much of it is benchmark construction versus alpha.

The Liability-Aware Investing posture.

HOOPP describes its investment strategy as “Liability-Aware Investing,” which is a doctrine-level commitment to building the portfolio around liability matching rather than around an asset-allocation benchmark.^[1] In practical terms, this typically means:

• Fixed income carries a larger structural weight than at a return-targeting peer
• Public-equity beta is dialled to the liability profile, not maximized
• Real-asset and private-market positions are weighted toward inflation-hedging and long-cash-flow assets rather than maximum expected return
• The benchmark itself reflects liability composition, not a public-market proxy

The 2025 portfolio narrative is consistent: “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.”^[2]

The 49% Canadian-asset position.

Approximately 49% of the Fund is invested in Canada, “across public equities, fixed income, infrastructure, real estate and private credit.”^[2] This is the highest published Canadian-asset share in the Maple 8 cohort, and it sets HOOPP apart structurally on the domestic-allocation question.

A few observations.

The 49% is across asset classes, not concentrated in one. Public equity, fixed income, infrastructure, real estate, and private credit are all carry Canadian exposure inside the 49%. That distribution makes the position closer to a diversified domestic allocation than a single-line-item tilt.

It is consistent with the “nation-building” conversation surfacing across the cohort. OTPP’s most recent press release surfaces ongoing discussions with federal and provincial governments on “nation-building” investment.^{[Manager Watch — OTPP 2025 primer]} HOOPP’s 49%-Canadian position is in a sense the result of choices that have already been made. The cohort policy conversation is moving in the direction HOOPP has already been positioned.

The healthcare-sector focus on the liability side has a parallel on the asset side. The fund’s members are by definition Ontario healthcare workers; the political and economic context of their pensions is Ontario. The 49%-Canadian position aligns the asset-side geography with the liability-side geography in a way most cohort peers do not match.

Climate.

HOOPP reduced its carbon footprint by 37% versus the 2021 baseline.^[2] The cohort-wide pattern of climate disclosures is consistent across the Maple 8; HOOPP’s specific framing flags the 2021 base year, which is one cycle later than several peers.

Governance.

HOOPP “operates as a private independent trust, and its Board of Trustees governs the Plan and Fund.”^[2] The Board is composed 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). The structure is jointly sponsored across employer and employee representation, with the trust posture giving HOOPP operational independence from the provincial government.

2030 Strategic Plan.

HOOPP launched its 2030 Strategic Plan in 2025. Three priorities, as announced:^[2]

1. Maximize value for members
2. Improve adaptability and resilience of the portfolio
3. Evolve with Ontario’s healthcare community

The third priority is the operationally interesting one. Ontario’s healthcare workforce is changing; the plan welcomed the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 2025, “achieving 100% participation across Ontario hospitals,” and expanded eligibility to incorporated physicians.^[2] Both moves widen the future-contributor pool and the future-benefit base. The 2030 Strategy is the plan’s response to how that workforce conversation is shifting.

What this column tracks from here on HOOPP.

Three watch items.

1. Whether the 10-year value-add holds. A second decade of +1.9% per annum versus benchmark would settle the question of how much of the spread is benchmark construction and how much is investment execution. The 2026 result, when it lands in March 2027, is the first incremental data point.

2. Funded-ratio progression. HOOPP has been fully funded for 16 years. Sustaining that through whatever the next decade’s interest-rate and equity environment looks like is the test of the Liability-Aware Investing posture, not just of the asset-side execution.

3. The 49%-Canadian-allocation conversation. Whether the federal-provincial nation-building investment dialogue results in HOOPP incrementally raising its Canadian allocation, or whether peers move toward HOOPP’s level, is the cohort-shape question. HOOPP is the leading edge; the others will have to choose.

People.

President & CEO: Annesley Wallace.^[2]

Membership scale.

504,000+ active, deferred, and retired members; 870+ employers; SickKids joined 2025 completing 100% Ontario hospital participation.^[1][2]

Comments and pointers to coverage worth folding in at [email protected].

Sources

1. HOOPP, About HOOPP. https://hoopp.com/about-hoopp. Retrieved 2026-05-30; saved as hoopp-about-2026-05-30.md in the research library under pensions/2026/.
2. HOOPP, HOOPP delivers strong 2025 results for Ontario’s healthcare community, press release, Toronto, 10 March 2026. https://hoopp.com/news-and-insights/newsroom/newsroom-details/hoopp-delivers-strong-2025-results-for-ontario-s-healthcare-community. Saved as hoopp-2025-results-press-2026-05-29.md.
3. HOOPP, 2025 Annual Report (PDF). https://hoopp.com/docs/default-source/investments-library/annual-reports/hoopp-2025-annual-report.pdf. Cited as the source document; specific page references will appear in follow-up pieces drawing on the annual report directly.