SageSure, the catastrophe-focused MGU that offers coastal homeowners programs to agents and carrier partners, has made a strategic investment in Pillar Capital Management, a Bermuda-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager with more than $4 billion in institutional assets under management.
Financial terms were not disclosed, and SageSure did not say how large a stake it has taken.
Pillar will continue to operate as an independent business, with its Bermuda team and investment strategy unchanged. Longtime CEO and chief investment officer Stephen Velotti (pictured, left) and chief operating officer Tara Railton (pictured, center) will remain in charge, and Pillar’s management will keep a substantial ownership stake. SageSure will provide Pillar with its risk-level insights, analytics and technology.
SageSure said the deal adds Pillar’s reinsurance underwriting and its relationships with institutional investors to its platform. It said this would broaden its capabilities across the property catastrophe value chain and connect its underwriting with a wider range of capital sources. Pillar was founded in 2008 and allocates capital across reinsurance, retrocession, catastrophe bonds and industry loss warranties. SageSure president and CEO Terrence McLean (pictured, right) said Pillar’s focus on technical underwriting and prudent risk management matches SageSure’s own principles. Velotti said Pillar’s strategy, team and service to investors would stay the same, and that the partnership would improve its ability to access, evaluate and manage catastrophe risk.
SageSure funded the investment by expanding its existing debt facility with Ares Management. Howden Capital Markets & Advisory advised SageSure and Evercore advised Pillar.
Capacity for catastrophe-exposed homeowners business depends on carriers and, behind them, reinsurers, and SageSure has been building its own routes to that capital. The Jersey City-based MGU operates in 16 states, protects nearly 1 million policyholders and manages more than $3 billion of in-force premium, according to the company.
In February, SageSure and SURE closed the $670 million Gateway Re 2026-1 catastrophe bond, the largest issuance in the franchise. SageSure said it was the first to significantly broaden the franchise beyond named storms. SageSure said the deal brought outstanding notional limit across its supported franchises to $3.1 billion, making it the third-largest catastrophe bond sponsor in the world. In March it followed with a $175 million Gateway Re 2026-2 bond with Auros and a $200 million Seawall Re II sidecar. SageSure has said its programs and carrier partners expect to secure about $7 billion of first-event reinsurance limit this year.
Owning part of an ILS manager takes the strategy a step further, giving SageSure a stake in a business that allocates institutional capital to reinsurance risk directly.
The deal also follows a period of rapid expansion in Florida. In January, SageSure completed its acquisition of Gemini Financial Holdings and its Olympus subsidiaries, one of the state’s leading underwriting franchises. SageSure now manages a combined 130,000 in-force policies, about $700 million in gross written premium and a network of about 1,500 independent agents across Florida. Olympus Insurance Company itself was acquired by Valence Insurance Holdings, the parent of SageSure carrier partners Auros and Interboro. That deal was also funded by expanding the Ares facility.
