Eaton Vance mutual fund ILS holdings hit $777m, new Swiss Re and Jaffa Capital investments
Holdings in insurance-linked securities fund structures and reinsurance sidecars made by Eaton Vance through three of its mutual funds have risen in value to approximately $777 million over the last quarter of record, as the asset manager allocated more to its investment in the Swiss Re Core Nat Cat Fund and added a new allocation to the Jaffa Capital Fund.
The firm has been allocating to certain insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, segregated accounts and reinsurance sidecars through three of its mutual fund portfolio strategies, with their holdings growing over time.
Then as reported in July, six months later as of April 30th 2026, those ILS holdings had grown in value by 126% to reach almost $680 million, with new allocations made to structures linked to re/insurers Arch Capital, PartnerRe and QBE, as well as to one unknown entity named Beacon RE.
Now, the total value of ILS investments across the three Eaton Vance mutual fund strategies we can track has increased by a further 14% to almost $777 million, while we can see from its filings that an additional investment seems to have been made into Swiss Re’s Core Nat Cat Fund strategy, plus a brand new investment has been made into the Jaffa Capital Fund.
The other access points to ILS and reinsurance returns that these Eaton Vance funds hold allocations to have not seemingly had any additions, but the majority have risen in value thanks to positive returns generated in the last quarter of record.
The ILS and reinsurance sidecar investment allocations are made within the Eaton Vance Global Opportunities, Global Macro and Global Macro Absolute Return Advantage fund strategies.
Eaton Vance is an example of a large multi-strategy and asset class investment manager with a liking for reinsurance-linked returns. The firm has been increasingly integrating ILS within the three mutual funds we can see, although there could be more allocated in strategies we cannot see any reporting from.
The mutual funds maintain a shrinking holding in Munich Re’s Eden Re II reinsurance sidecar, with that strategy having been shuttered by the firm earlier this year. This investment, across the three funds, is now down to just under $10 million as of July 31st 2026, having been $68 million back in October 2025..
Beacon RE, the unknown reinsurance allocation that we suspect is another quota share sidecar vehicle, still stands as a $92.8 million investment across the Eaton Vance mutual funds, slightly up since April 30th.
The funds allocations to a PartnerRe reinsurance sidecar now amount to $119 million at July 31st, up from $114.5 million at April 30th.
The investment into QBE’s George Street Re casualty sidecar is valued at almost $63.7 million, slightly up from the end of April’s $63.2 million.
The Eaton Vance funds investments into the Everest parented Mt. Logan Re saw a good increase in value to over $153 million at July 31st, up from $145 million at April 30th.
Next, the Swiss Re Core Nat Cat Fund under 1863 Fund Ltd., which has had a new allocation we believe. At April 30th this investment was valued at just over $103 million, but at July 31st it was over $147 million which seems too much to be returns alone, hence assuming a top-up investment has been made.
The funds investments into the PartnerRe ILS Fund SAC Ltd. rose in value from $74.2 million at April 30th to almost $77 million at July 31st.
The investment made into Arch Capital’s Voussoir Re sidecar special purpose company stood at $74.58 million at April 30th, soon after having first been made, but was valued at $74.09 million at July 31st which we understand is expected in the ramp-up of this recently made position.
Finally, an entirely new investment allocation has been made of just over $40 million from two of the Eaton Vance funds into the Jaffa Capital Management operated Jaffa Capital Fund, a strategy that allocates capital to P&C reinsurance sidecars and private quota shares.
Overall, the ILS investments are still only a small component of the multi-billion dollar portfolios of each of these Eaton Vance mutual funds.
As of July 31st, ILS and reinsurance sidecar investments make up just 3.7% of the Global Opportunities Portfolio (up by 0.1% in the quarter), 1.3% of the Global Macro Portfolio (up again by 0.1%) and 2% of the Global Macro Absolute Return Advantage Portfolio (down by 0.1%) fund strategies.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the cost of the currently valued at $777 million of ILS and sidecar investments is reported to have been just over $647 million, showing very positive returns for Eaton Vance its investor clients.
We continue to believe that Eaton Vance is building out a broad and diversified set of access points to the ILS and reinsurance market, which suggests these allocations could continue to build over-time.
Increasing numbers of large asset managers are looking to ILS and reinsurance as drivers of differentiated returns to add to their strategies, which meets the needs of global investors at a time when they are seeking more diversification and insulation from macro volatility.
