American College of Surgeons to Launch Mutual Fund

The American College of Surgeons plans to slice into the financial world, launching its own mutual fund, according to Reuters.

"Surgeons are often not equipped to run their offices, let alone their investments," said Gay Vincent, comptroller of the Chicago-based education and research society.  The College of Surgeons, which has 70,000 members, is working with The Carpenter Group, a marketing and communications firm in New York, but is still searching for an investment advisor to manage the fund.

The fund, which the college hopes to rollout this autumn, will have nine categories, and no drug-related or medical focus, according to Vincent. At first, the fund will invest mainly in exchange-traded funds, until assets reach $100 million.

The group expects between 2% and 10% of its members to participate in the fund, which is only open to members and their families. Some have already pledged to invest as much as $1 million, according to Vincent, although the average investment will probably be closer to $45,000.

Vincent said the fund is a result of member surgeons' requests for help with investments.  While as a group surgeons can earn seven-figure salaries, most have very high education costs to consider and an earlier-than-average retirement age.

"Surgeons have a short span to make a lot of money, and we have found that there seems to be a need to provide investment education," Vincent said.