Bruce R. Bent

Bruce Roger Bent (born May 25, 1937) is an American businessman credited with inventing the world's first money market fund, the Reserve Fund, with Henry B. R. Brown in 1970. Bent and Brown created an organizational structure by which investors could pool cash to gain access to the market for short-term money obligations. Money market funds now manage more than US$3.0 trillion, serving tens of millions of investors.

In the book One Up on Wall Street, published in 1989, Peter Lynch wrote that "there ought to be a monument to Bruce Bent and Henry B. R. Brown" in regards to their role in inventing the money market fund.

Career Bent started his Wall Street career as a managing partner at LF Rothschild and Company Inc. Two years later, he began working at the pension firm, TIAA-CREF, where he met his eventual business partner, Brown. In 1968, the pair created their own firm, Brown & Bent. In August 1969, while brainstorming about investment vehicles, Bent posed the idea for a mutual fund that could offer rates of return while allowing for zero market risk. The idea was to give investors immediate liquidity and safety for their money above all else.

In 1970, the firm launched its first money market fund, the Reserve Fund, to provide effective cash management, a dollar back for every dollar invested and beyond that a reasonable rate of return. The fund was launched with no sales force or advertisements, and instead relied on phoning investment advisers and handing out brochures. In January 1973, The New York Times published an article about their firm and by the end of the year it had $100 million in deposits.

The Reserve Primary Fund ceased operations on September 17, 2008, in relation to the collapse of the Lehman Brothers.

Politics In 2001, Bent was the Republican candidate for Nassau County Executive. Before he was chosen as the Republican candidate, he received the endorsement of the Conservative Party and ran with little assistance from the county's Republican Party. Promising to improve the county's financial situation and work for a salary of $1 a year, he lost to Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi. He has also given guest lectures at New York University, The Wharton School, and Harvard University.