SMIF achieves outstanding 2009 performance
UND’s Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) had another great year. The organization is part of the College of Business and Public Administration (COBPA) and began in the fall of 2005. The COBPA joined a growing number of business schools by providing the opportunity to manage and administer an investment portfolio.
Through this program, students receive hands on experience in the field of finance by allowing them to manage a portfolio instead of doing simulations. Students work in small groups conducting research and analysis and present formal investment recommendations to the Investment Advisory Committee, which is comprised of faculty and professionals. The SMIF organization is responsible for managing all aspects of the Investment Fund, including research, investment management, administration and client services.
The following table indicates the full year returns for 2009:
Seifert/Foley Fund – 42.31 percent
Stenehjem Fund – 32.19 percent
Total Managed Funds – 35.88 percent
S&P 500 – 26.35 percent
Only 20 percent of professionally managed mutual funds beat the market in any given year, and the SMIF organization beat the market by a good margin in 2009. It also beat the market in 2007. Due to the management and strategies of the SMIF organization, $10,000 invested in Dec. 31, 2006, would be worth about $500 more today than $10,000 invested in the S&P 500 on Dec. 31, 2006. With this comparison, UND’s SMIF organization is up 5 percent cumulatively on the S&P 500 since Dec. 31, 2006.
The student managed investment portfolio started with $100,000 in funding from the UND Alumni Foundation. Currently the students are managing an $806,618.98 portfolio with gifts from Jim and Nancy Seifert, Robert Foley, A. Kirk Lanterman and the Stenehjem Family.
