The UGA Foundation’s investment committee voted unanimously to invest $750,000 from the foundation’s endowment in the Terry College of Business’ Student Managed Investment Fund as part of its long-term portfolio strategy. The foundation’s investment will boost SMIF’s capital from a balance of approximately $354,000 as of Aug. 31 to more than $1 million.
The Student Managed Investment Fund was initiated in 2006 with a $100,000 gift from UGA Foundation Trustee Darren DeVore and his wife, Pam, both of whom are 1986 UGA graduates. They wanted to give students practical experience through an opportunity to serve as actual investment managers versus learning about the financial services industry through hypothetical investment scenarios.
The program allows a group of UGA students to manage a UGA Foundation-owned investment fund. And since its inception, the returns students have achieved compare favorably to major Wall Street averages.
Through fiscal year 2015, the DeVores and other donors contributed a total of $250,000 to the fund, whose team has grown the balance by an average of 8.95 percent on an annualized basis since the fund’s inception.
Student-managers will offer presentations to the Investment Committee recapping their investment strategies and providing an analysis of the fund’s performance at three board meetings each year and will provide interim updates as needed.
Annette Poulsen, the Billy Sterne Chair of Banking and Finance in the Terry College, is the faculty adviser for the Student Managed Investment Fund.
