Though Americans generally get credit for creating the mutual fund, the idea was generated in Europe back in the mid-1800s. When the idea finally hit the States, some Harvard University staffers created the first American pooled fund in 1893. About thirty years later, the first official mutual fund was created. Called the Massachusetts Investors Trust, it was heckled by the investment community at the time. Little did they know how popular mutual funds would become. Currently, trillions of dollars are invested in mutual funds in the United States alone.