City National Rochdale mutual ILW fund grows further to $218m

The City National Rochdale Select Strategies Fund, a US mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund focused on investments into industry-loss warranties (ILW’s) and industry-index trigger catastrophe bonds, has continued to grow, to reach almost $218 million as of October 31st 2023.

Investment adviser City National Rochdale (CNR) offers an industry-loss warranty (ILW) and industry-index trigger focused mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy in the United States.

The capital from the City National Rochdale Select Strategies Fund is allocated to opportunities that are portfolio managed by the ILS investment team at Neuberger Berman and housed in its segregated account vehicle.

With ILW rates-on-line remaining elevated, despite some deceleration in recent quarters as Artemis’ index of ILW pricing shows, the opportunity remains very attractive and the CNR fund has attracted new inflows in the last year as a result.

The fund has experienced a 13% increase in invested assets over the year to October 31st 2023, reaching that date with over $213 million of ILW and cat bond assets invested in.

The total net assets of the ILW fund is a little higher, at the $218 million level.

But, the cost of the invested assets is just $155.6 million, suggesting a significant appreciation and return generated for investors in the fund.

Over a one-year period, the net asset value return of the fund reached just over 14.2%, according to some mutual fund reporting websites.

For this fund, the end of year renewals will likely be the key trading point of the last year, given ILW market activity was somewhat more subdued around the mid-year renewals of 2023.