Student-Managed Investment Funds
What is a SMIF?
A student-managed investment fund gives students responsibility for real investment capital, within a mandate established by its owner.
The learning comes from making decisions with consequences: researching securities, constructing a portfolio, managing risk, implementing trades, and explaining results. A stock pitch is one part of that responsibility. The portfolio is the unit of accountability.
Where does accountability sit?
Approval before action
Students develop recommendations. A faculty member or investment committee retains approval or veto authority.
Accountability after action
Students report what they did, explain the results, and defend what they intend to do next.
IPS and compliance make accountability after action possible
The IPS establishes the client’s objectives and the boundaries of delegated authority. Compliance monitoring checks that students operate within those boundaries. Together, they allow students to make investment decisions and then answer for the results, without routine approval of each decision by an adult investment committee.
The panel can therefore ask: did your decisions serve the mandate, did you respect its boundaries, and what did you learn? IPS and compliance are the foundation of this arrangement, rather than a separate type of student-managed fund.
What makes your fund different?
BEAM and SIAS combine meaningful university capital, multi-asset portfolios, a fossil-fuel-free mandate, and substantial student discretion within a client-defined investment framework.
The distinction is the combination. Large funds, sustainability mandates, and student autonomy also exist elsewhere.
June 30, 2026 figures from the project’s SIAS Q2 and BEAM 2Q26 reviews. Combined value is approximate because BEAM reports rounded AUM. SIAS review, page 4 (project reference) · BEAM review, page 6 (project reference)
A portfolio-management job
Both funds invest across global equity, Canadian equity, Canadian fixed income, and cash. Students must connect asset allocation, portfolio construction, security selection, trading, compliance, measurement, and client reporting. SFU’s BEAM overview
Sustainability is part of the mandate
SFU reports that both student funds became fossil-fuel free in their actively managed holdings in 2022. This changes the investable universe and creates benchmark-relative consequences that belong in the performance story. SFU divestment announcement
Delegated authority, defined boundaries
The university defines the mandate
The IPS specifies the portfolio the client wants, permissible investments, allocation ranges, diversification, and compliance requirements.
Students manage the portfolio
Within those boundaries, students research, decide, and implement investments.
The panel challenges the story
Students explain decisions, outcomes, lessons, and future intentions. Advice supports their judgment and accountability.
Governance framing follows Glenn Powers’ account in “Compare Student Managed Funds.” It describes the teaching and operating model, rather than replacing the current IPS or trade-approval procedures.
Compare the governance, not just the fund size
| Program | Published description | Question for comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Dayton | Reports more than US$85 million under student management in its 2025 ranking. Davis Center | How much capital is entrusted to students, and for which clients? |
| Carlson | Students manage funds with guidance from a managing director and faculty. Funds Enterprise | Where does professional support sit in the decision process? |
| Darden | A 2017 university account describes the faculty adviser as advisory, with investment decisions in student hands. Darden Report | What mandate and governance support that discretion? |
| Xavier | A 2023 faculty profile explicitly describes faculty veto authority. Faculty profile | Who can intervene before an investment is made? |
These examples illustrate different arrangements, not a ranking. Published descriptions have different dates and do not establish every program’s current trading procedures.
The story you need to tell
You have been entrusted with real capital and meaningful authority. Your performance review explains how you used that authority inside the client’s mandate.
- What did you choose to do?
- How did the mandate shape the decision?
- What happened, and what did you learn?
- What will you do next?