MutualFundWire.com: NYU Students Strive To Make Mutual Funds Sexy

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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

NYU Students Strive To Make Mutual Funds Sexy

NYU students took up a difficult challenge: Getting millennials excited about mutual funds, The Wall Street Journal's Charlie Wells reported. Daniel Eskat, a partner in the production company Warren Enskat Group and in Eskat & Asscoiates, an asset advisory firm and Robert Warren, a longtime investment manager, created the filming competition.

It wasn't easy to get started, however. You'll need to suspend your belief here: Warren found that almost no students invested in a mutual fund. After many interesting submissions, the prize, a trip to Monaco, went to a movie called "Frenemies" by Prithi Gowda. the film centers on a young shopaholic who learned that if she quit buying shoes and invested in a mutual fund instead of a savings account, she could open a shoe boutique. Cute. Why not a specialty cupcake shop?

Gowda is not a millennial herself but she knows something about the financial industry as the NUY alumnae once produced videos for Goldman Sachs. The other film was called "Stocktopussy" is a spoof by Eric Cohen and Rajat Sharma, where an ETF agent tries to steal the secrets of agent 007 percent's portfolio in a play on mutual fund and ETF competition:

"Hand over your portfolio and we shall let you go," the ETF agent says. "Resist, and we may be forced to lower your Morningstar rating."

The millennial filmmakers are both enrolled in NYU's dual MBA and MFA program. Despite all of their efforts, some industry insiders aren't sure they want to pursue the young'in's money, as they don't have the motivation to save for retirement and they want "bling.":

"It's hard to make mutual funds sexy because they are about deprivation, putting money away for future happiness," says Jon Stein, the 33-year-old CEO of investment advisory service startup Betterment. "What's sexy is current consumption, buying bling, yachts and fast cars, not socking away money for later in life."