As the catastrophe bond market continues to expand and create further opportunities in the ILS market, there is also a growing demand being seen for portfolios that combine liquid cat bonds with carefully selected private ILS exposures, which according to Twelve Securis’ Cahal Doris, gives investors greater control over liquidity, diversification and risk-return objectives.
Speaking with Artemis during the key conference season, Doris, who serves as Chief Investment Officer ILS at the company, discussed a number of key topics, such as what areas Twelve Securis aims to grow its business into 2027 and beyond, as well as how the company feels about artificial intelligence’s expansion into the ILS space.
To begin, Doris outlined how the specialist catastrophe bond and ILS investment manager hopes to differentiate its business to attract clients throughout the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
“Our differentiation comes from combining deep specialist expertise in insurance risk with the ability to invest across the broader catastrophe opportunity set. Rather than viewing cat bonds, reinsurance and retrocession in isolation, we can assess relative value across these markets and allocate capital where we believe investors are being best compensated for the risk,” Doris explained.
He continued: “That is supported by an institutional investment platform, independent risk analytics and a strong emphasis on developing our own view of risk rather than relying solely on market consensus or third-party models.”
All of which leads the CIO to state that as the ILS market becomes larger and more competitive, Twelve Securis believes that applying a combination of specialisation, extensive access, independent analysis and alignment with investors becomes increasingly more valuable.
Looking ahead into 2027 and beyond, Doris highlighted that Twelve Securis intends to keep providing investors with a comprehensive range of attractive ILS opportunities, rather than limiting itself to just one single market segment.
However, the CIO importantly highlighted how Twelve Securis has begun to see a key opportunity for blended liquid cat bonds and private ILS portfolios.
“The continued expansion of cat bonds creates opportunities in its own right, but we also see growing demand for portfolios combining liquid cat bonds with carefully selected private ILS exposures. Such solutions can give investors greater control over liquidity, diversification and risk-return objectives,” Doris explained.
He continued: “Parametric and specialty opportunities may also broaden the investable universe where the underlying risks can be analysed robustly and the structures provide appropriate compensation.
“The opportunity for us is therefore to use our capabilities across cat bonds, reinsurance and retrocession to construct increasingly sophisticated solutions for institutional investors.”
We also asked Doris to share how Twelve Securis views artificial intelligence and whether it is considered a priority for the organisation.
“We see applications across risk research and analytics, data processing, operational workflows and client servicing. As a large investor in technology, we have observed that the development time from prototype to deployment for a new tool has been dramatically shortened, meaning we can broaden our ambitions and look to advance capabilities in these areas without significant cost,” Doris told Artemis.
“For an ILS manager, however, the objective should not be to automate investment judgement. The value comes from using technology to process information more efficiently, identify patterns and allow specialists to spend more time on the areas where human judgement and domain expertise matter most.”
Doris concludes by stressing that governing AI is equally as important as adopting it into workflows.
“Governance is therefore critical. Any use of AI in investment and risk processes needs appropriate controls, transparency and human oversight. In a business where understanding relatively low-frequency, high-severity risks is fundamental, technological sophistication cannot substitute for genuine insurance and catastrophe-risk expertise.”
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