Sam Folin is a Managing Director of Benchmark Asset Managers LLC. Along with a lifetime of professional investment experience Sam has shown a continuing passion to contribute to the health of mission driven organizations and to support individuals in seeking social investment options.
For eleven years as an investment broker, he specialized in socially responsible investments. He spent eight years with the large-cap value manager, Newbold’s Asset Management, serving as portfolio manager and analyst, managing 24 accounts to a peak value of $1.2 billion. In the late nineties Sam led the development of RISA: Reinvest South Africa. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1990.
Sam also has a long history in socially responsible investing. He was a founding board member and past Board Chair of ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility). He was also an animating force in the establishment of the Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia – the pre-eminent community loan fund in the United States. Additionally, he has served as a consultant (investment and endowment policy) and Board member for numerous other non-profit organizations including Bread for the World and Border Links. He now serves as Finance Chair for the Christian Association at the U of PA.
While at Benchmark, Sam has implemented industry leading (within sustainable investing), pro-active asset allocation that employs modern portfolio theory concepts, but reaches back to valuation strategies designed by Benjamin Graham. The result has been the use of non-consensus expected return inputs in the asset allocation process. Sam’s leadership in this area has allowed Benchmark clients access to world-class risk management and the avoidance of portfolio destroying declines.
Sam’s unique combination of investment experience, community investment leadership and background in investment policy and social investing make him uniquely qualified to serve as a member of the Benchmark team.
Sam is married and has two adult children and one grandbaby!
