Bethel’s Royals Investment Fund tops $3 million and lands $100,000 new investment

Shortly after helping Bethel's Royals Investment Fund bring in a new investment earlier this year, business: finance major Jacob Merriam ’28 got a friendly nudge from the new investor on the phone. “We'll see how it's doing by November. No pressure!”

For Merriam, it was a reminder of what’s on the line when managing other people’s money. “The ‘No pressure!’ was said partially in jest, but there is no debate that the stakes are real for the investments,” says Merriam, the fund’s chief investment officer.

For nearly a decade, those stakes have set the Royals Investment Fund (RIF) apart. In recent months, the fund surpassed $3 million in assets and landed a $100,000 investment, its first major new investment in over seven years. It also launched an Investor Outreach team to manage relationships with investors who have ties to the Bethel community.

But most importantly, the fund has helped more than 200 students—about 30 a year—gain experience running what is essentially a private investment firm. They screen for undervalued stocks, pitch them each month to an investment committee of industry professionals, send monthly reports to investors, and court new ones. They even interview and hire the next year's team.

And the fund is part of why students like Eloise Nelson ’28 choose Bethel. “It is an unparalleled opportunity to gain real experience in managing capital and work alongside business professionals while still being in college,” says Nelson, the fund's director of investor outreach and marketing.

Royals Investment Fund at a glance

• Assets: About $3.2 million in independent investor dollars, including a new $100,000 investment this year
• Investors: Institutional and individual investors with ties to Bethel, who can withdraw their money at any time
• Launched: 2017, as a limited liability company under Bethel, with $1 million from Thrivent
• Students: About 30 a year, with more than 200 alumni
• Teams: Research, Risk and Operations, Marketing, and Investor Outreach, led by a student chief investment officer and chief operating officer
• Decisions: Made monthly by students; an investment committee of industry professionals approves or rejects proposals
• Joining: Competitive application open to all business majors; a year-round extracurricular with optional elective credit
• Values: Students screen out companies whose business conflicts with biblical values and debate the gray areas
• Careers: Alumni work at Thrivent, General Mills, Taylor Corporation, and more; many start at six-figure salaries

“Students run the company top to bottom”

Merriam’s phone call underscores a key differentiator for the Royals Investment Fund: Students manage money for investors. Many student-managed funds invest a university’s endowment or scholarship dollars, which often means they focus on finance and research. Merriam says that drives him to be thorough, down to simple things like always double-checking numbers and percentages. “Being trusted with real money by real investors is an experience that is an honor for any finance student,” he says.

But when Bethel launched the Royals Investment Fund in 2017, it did so with a $1 million investment from Thrivent and supporting funds from eight private investors. Bethel established the fund as a limited liability company under the university's umbrella, allowing Department of Business students to run a full-fledged investment firm.

Students fully manage the fund, but they do it with support and mentorship from the fund’s Board of Advisors, a team of alumni and faculty. RIF co-founder Lucas Bunting ’15 still serves on the board as a professional director. “The idea is to let the students run the company top to bottom, and my team and I keep them between the ditches,” says Bunting, who works on Thrivent's Systematic Alpha team and helps manage $16 billion using systematic trading strategies.

Because the fund’s assets belong to outside investors, they can withdraw their money at any time. “It's rare for a university of Bethel's size to have a student-managed fund at all, let alone one with over $3 million in investor capital,” says Professional Director Jacob McCullough ’24.

Student leaders on the fund are constantly aware of the responsibility of managing third-party assets, and Nelson says surpassing $3 million underscored the importance of the fund’s investors—and their trust. “Our investors understand that we are students learning and preparing for our future,” she says, “but that does not lessen the standard we are held to or the quality of work we are expected to deliver.”

Learning opportunities for the whole business department

For business students, the fund offers hands-on experience without leaving campus. Because the fund operates like a firm, Associate Professor of Business Drew Whitson ’02, the fund’s faculty advisor, says it offers opportunities for students from each of Bethel’s undergraduate business majors and emphases. The fund includes roles on several teams—Research, Risk and Operations, Marketing, and Investor Outreach—plus executive and team leadership positions. “It serves the whole department,” Whitson says.

Like Nelson, Business: Finance major Wes Myers ’27, the fund’s head of research, chose Bethel in part because of the fund. Looking for a college where he could play baseball, he learned about the fund during a Bethel tour and knew he wanted to be a part of it. “I had a passion for investing at the time, and hearing how I could join a pre-established investment fund using real capital swayed me even further,” he says.

He’s not alone. Whitson frequently hears that prospective students choose Bethel because they know they’ll have the opportunity to work on the fund. Bunting says students are driven by more than credit or grades. “Students tend to be motivated by their call to stewardship, interest in investments, and desire to learn new skills,” he says.

For Nelson, a business major with emphases in accounting and finance, the fund is a chance to apply what she’s learning in class in a professional setting. That includes working with tools students expect to use in their careers, from FactSet and other investment research software to AI, which Whitson says has helped the fund automate manual processes and given students more time to think. It also means keeping up with markets and news—changing rates, energy prices, and world events—and what they mean for the portfolio. “It’s what they’re going to face in the real world,” Whitson says.

The fund also gives students the opportunity to manage their peers, and at times, even students who are older and more experienced. Myers admits he joined as a sophomore “not knowing much of anything,” but he’s now grown into a leadership position where he is leading and teaching younger students. “It’s more than just learning about investing,” Myers says. “There are opportunities to learn more about leading others.”

Mentorship prepares and connects students

While the Royals Investment Fund is run by students, professional mentorship is a vital part of the process. The three professional directors meet with student leaders multiple times each week, while an investment committee of industry professionals meets monthly to approve or reject student research proposals. “They serve as a layer of protection for the investors, but also as teachers for the students,” Bunting says.

Bunting says the professionals tied to the fund push back on students the same way industry leaders do—challenging assumptions, discussing scenarios and the sensitivity of models and analyses, and correcting or aligning thinking as appropriate. “Investment research has plenty of subjectivity,” Bunting says. “The skill we try to build is to formulate a fact-based argument, defend your thesis, and update everything as new material information comes out.”

Along with the mentors, students also give regular reports to investors. McCullough recalls presenting the fund’s year-to-date performance as a student to Thrivent’s executive investment professionals, who didn’t go easy on students in the Q&A. “They drilled into our portfolio construction and why we were positioned the way we were,” McCullough says.

Students don’t always get it right. “We give them enough leash to make mistakes so they can learn, but we provide enough support to ensure their mistakes don’t come at significant cost to the investors,” Bunting says.

A few years ago, a stock the fund held fell to zero after the company went bankrupt. Because the fund is well diversified, Whitson says it didn’t have a big impact on overall performance. “But it was an incredible teaching moment,” Whitson says.

Whitson says he and Thrivent frequently discuss how the fund’s financial success is secondary to the students’ learning and growth. “It's about the experience,” he says. “It's not about the fund or the fund performance.”

Experience that opens doors

When it comes time for RIF students to seek internships and launch their careers, their fund experience sets them apart. Bunting sees many companies come back to hire students from the fund for internships or full-time roles. “Our students are in high demand, and they tend to win the job because they have a cool item on their resume and real experience to back it up,” he says.

It’s also helping students shape their careers. As he prepares to graduate next year, Myers calls the fund a huge resume builder, and notes the experience leading other students has steered him toward a career in financial planning and advising. Nelson says the fund has already made her more confident about her future. And for McCullough, it came up in every job interview. “When I was interviewing near graduation, every interview included extensive questions about my involvement and the skills it taught me,” he says.

After graduation, RIF alumni join an exclusive LinkedIn group, where they post jobs for current students and one another. Bunting says it gives students a leg up in interviews and gives alumni confidence they’re hiring candidates with shared values, shared experiences, and a strong work ethic.

That network keeps growing. “Now that we have some RIF alumni that have been out for five, six, seven, eight years, they’re actually starting to move up in positions where they can now come back and be mentors or start hiring,” Whitson says.

McCullough has already made that return. As a student, he was fascinated by financial markets, but the only people he knew in the industry doing such work were the fund’s professional directors. The fund became a big reason he pursued a career in investments, and today he’s a fixed-income trader at Thrivent. This year, he came back as a professional director to be that resource for students. “My hope is that the fund keeps building a reputation in the Twin Cities investment community as an outstanding program with outstanding students, and that students get as much as possible out of this unique experiential learning opportunity,” he says.

Driven by faith

Bethel’s Christ-centered community also gives students room to explore how their beliefs shape their work in finance. “Bethel’s values are what differentiate us in the marketplace,” Bunting says.

The fund screens out companies whose business conflicts with biblical values, and companies in gray areas are often up for debate. “That sparks healthy discussion about which companies should or shouldn't be excluded, and it's always one of our best conversations and a natural way to bring faith into the fund,” McCullough says.

For Merriam, faith shapes how the fund treats its investors. “Integrity and trust are key when communicating with investors,” he says. “If we have a down month, we want to make sure we communicate that information the same way we do for a positive month.”

Similarly, Nelson admits a business career can become focused on personal achievement, but Bethel helped her also focus on using her skills to serve others. “There is nothing wrong with working hard and pursuing success, but my faith serves as a reminder not to lose sight of what success is in the eyes of Christ,” she says. That perspective has shaped how Nelson thinks about managing other people's wealth and what she considers a successful career.

Whatever the numbers show by November, Merriam knows returns are only part of the job. “We know we have a special opportunity to manage real money, and we want to do it in a way that glorifies the Lord, provides an unparalleled experience for students, and builds wealth for the investors who have put their trust in us,” he says.