Henry, a direct descendant of Jefferson Morgan has inherited $450,000. A financial advisor tells her to invest this amount and target an average of at least 8% return over a 30 years. Henry decides to invest in a Northern Endowment Fund that has had a ten year average return of 8.5%. During the same time, S&P500 has had a 13% return (this is market return). The risk free return is 2% and the beta of the fund is 0.8.
a) What is the discount rate?
b) Would a beta of 1.1 increase her returns?