Samuel W. Halpern

Samuel W. Halpern, President and Board member, has specialized for 30 years in the financial and fiduciary aspects of employee benefit plan investment programs. As President, Mr. Halpern is responsible for guiding development and delivery of the firm's services overall and personally works with select retainer and project clients across the full range of IFS' services. He is centrally involved in the firm's Executive Committee, which charts the firm's strategic direction, sets policy and monitors operations.

Prior to helping establish IFS in 1986, Mr. Halpern was a partner in a Washington, D.C. labor law firm, where he specialized in investment matters subject to the fiduciary responsibility provisions of ERISA. He represented pension and welfare funds, trustees, labor unions and participants in litigation and administrative matters involving the U.S. Department of Labor.

Before private practice, Mr. Halpern litigated fiduciary responsibility cases under ERISA for five years at the U.S. Department of Labor, where he helped develop legal standards for pension fund investing. These cases involved the ‘prudent man' rule, valuation and decision-making regarding plan investing in real estate and closely-held employer securities, diversification of investments, appropriate investment procedures, selection and compensation of service providers and other matters.

Mr. Halpern received his law degree with honors from The George Washington University of Law Center in Washington, D.C. He attended the London School of Economics and is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University. Mr. Halpern is based in IFS' Washington, D.C. office.