Harvard Alums Have Idea to Boost Endowment: Buy Index Funds
- Group from Class of 1969 send letter to incoming president
- Half of $37.1 billion fund should track S&P 500, alumni say
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A group of Harvard alumni proposed a solution for how the university’s endowment can pay for a new tax on investment income and boost returns: don’t think so much.
Harvard should use the savings from shifting half of its $37.1 billion endowment into low-cost funds tracking the S&P 500 to cover the cost of a new tax that some of the wealthiest schools will face, the group said Thursday in a letter to incoming President Lawrence Bacow.