University of Maine Foundation

A Spiffy Investment

SPIFFY Students

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The University of Maine Foundation believes students are good investments — and investors. The proof is SPIFFY.

The Student Portfolio Investment Fund (SPIFFY) established by the foundation 12 years ago with $200,000, and rewarded with infusions of $150,000 and $100,000 in subsequent years, has more than doubled its assets. Some of the students who serve as SPIFFY amateur money managers as undergraduates at UMaine go on to careers in financial management. Professor of Finance Robert Strong, SPIFFY's faculty adviser, is the 2005 Distinguished Maine Professor. An endowment fund newly established in the University of Maine Foundation proposes to underwrite SPIFFY's operating expenses.

This academic year, 35 students are involved in SPIFFY, meeting weekly to discuss management strategies, including the selection of equity and fixed-income investments, for the $1.1 million fund. SPIFFY's student leaders annually travel to New York to meet with executives of investment firms and to visit the New York Stock Exchange. At the Student Investment Fund Symposium held at the University of Dayton each spring, SPIFFY students consistently place high in competition.

SPIFFY reached a milestone almost a year ago when it crossed the million-dollar mark. In the past decade, SPIFFY students have produced returns of 11.9 percent. In the same period, the S&P 500 returned 8.8 percent.