The Student Asset Management (SAM) Fund within the Liberty University School of Business is using the concept of financial investing as a means to contribute to the Kingdom of God. The fund began in 2013 with a university endowment of $50,000 and now has grown to over $410,000 today.
A team of 40 students pursuing careers in asset management or equity research work together on the project.
“Now a whole large part of our approach is that we focus on whether security or a stock in a company is going to have any exposure to something that we would not like, like abortion or something like that,” senior Carter Hall, president of the fund, said.
The SAM Fund’s purpose is to better steward monetary resources toward kingdom-related work while being mindful of where their investments are going.
To support the fund’s goal for every stock to have a faith-based approach, the SAM Fund partnered with Timothy Plan, a wealth management company. Timothy Plan’s mission is to screen companies’ exposure to what may not align with their Christian values. Additionally, through relationships with consulting firms, they can evaluate if a company is exposed to anything unbiblical.
“We’ve seen actual movement in that space and that’s been really encouraging,” Hall said.
Hall oversees the inner workings of the team, facilitates communication and makes sure that individual tasks are aligned with the fund’s goals. In their weekly meetings, the team operates like a trading floor, reporting any changes in stocks and earnings. Hall also oversees training and games to test the team’s knowledge.
“This is a way to prepare ourselves for interviewing and for technicals and all the kinds of things we would do attempting to break into that competitive space,” Hall said.
Senior Whittman Brown serves as vice president of the SAM Fund and works closely with Hall to communicate with managers, who oversee various sections of the fund, as well as analysts whose job is to know the ins and outs of their assigned stock. When a student becomes a member, they begin as an analyst assigned to work in a sector of the fund. These sectors include technology, consumer goods, healthcare, industrial and financial. Brown became an intern in the financial sector, then moved into a manager role before becoming the vice president.
Brown said investing is important personally, but also for contributing to the university’s integrity.
“Looking at it from a Christian perspective, when it comes to stewardship God has given us the blessing of the finances that we have, and it’s our responsibility as Christians to steward that well … to use the money that he has given us for his kingdom and for his glory, to help serve others,” Brown said.
Hall guides the rest of the team toward this same, faith-based perspective.
“The mission that we’ve taken in SAM Fund is sending missionaries to Wall Street. It’s bringing excellence and rigor to the profession,” Hall said.
For more information about the SAM Fund and how to get involved, visit https://www.liberty.edu/business/student-organizations/student-asset-management-fund/.
Atkinson is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion.