Sylvia Benito

Based in Florida, Sylvia Benito is a Chief Investment Officer with more than two decades of portfolio management experience. Sylvia Benito has diverse experience in wealth management, having worked as a hedge fund analyst and managing portfolios for family offices and ultra-high-net-worth clients with more than $1 billion in assets.

A thought leader and public speaker committed to helping companies and investors leverage capital for transformative societal impact, Ms. Benito works with founders, families, and boards to help them align their goals and core values to facilitate positive change on a broader scale.

Also passionate about female empowerment and a believer in the transformative power of psychedelics, Sylvia Benito has spoken on these topics at several industry events, including the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies’ (MAPS) Psychedelic Science 2023, Women and Wealth, and the Wonderland Conference, where she was a featured speaker with Seano McFarland for “Addiction, Trauma & Psychedelics.” Ms. Benito also spoke at the 39th Private Wealth Management Summit on “Inheritance, Sudden Wealth, and Women” and hosted a fireside chat with Mike Tyson at the National Trial Lawyers Summit in 2023.

In addition to her work in wealth management, Sylvia Benito has experience as an entrepreneur. She co-founded The Oasis Institute in South America and successfully exited the venture before shifting her focus to investing with the goal of connecting consciousness to capital. She has been a member of the CFA Society since 2011 and holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from New College of Florida.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My typical day starts with walking my dog and being in a moment of beauty before I begin. I have been trying to shift what I call being productive to being present. Then I exercise to get my head cleared and pumped up. I start at 10 to work. My day is somewhere between calls and emails and writing my book. Around 4 I shift gears and spend some time with my boys, dinner at 6, and almost always go out for a work dinner or party by 8. Like almost every night, it’s Miami!

How do you bring ideas to life?

My creative process begins often in my imagination, or even in a ceremony when I can sit quietly. I like to dream up ways that I can look at things differently than the consensus culture. I believe that almost anything no matter how dark or tragic or problematic it is has a purpose that is deeper or more meaningful than we think it is. I like to think of new ways to ask questions. For example, when the Israeli/Gaza conflict began, instead of asking how to end the war (which seems nearly impossible right now) I ask, what is the purpose of war? What can war teach us? Maybe that goes nowhere and I hit a dead end, but often the more innovative the question, the more creative the direction that I later find to explore with an idea.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am excited by the trend in psychedelics, because it unites Democrats and Republicans around the issue of treating vets for PTSD. Anything that unites our country right now is exciting to me. This is one of the trojan horse issues that helps us to reach across the aisle. Pretty much everyone wants vets to heal, and the breakthrough therapy using psychedelics is really becoming a powerful force in our country.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I always do the least appealing task first, every day and all day long.

What advice would you give your younger self?

You are pretty cool, so keep going on the path you are on and enjoy!

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

That there is great benefit to the dark in life, it has a purpose and something to teach us.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

I try to take every moment as a puzzle and the solution to the puzzle is to move the moment closer to love or awakening, so that guides what I do from moment to moment.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

Walk the dog!

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

I found that getting my CFA Charter was essential because it helped to legitimize my voice in the industry.

What is one failure in your career,  how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

I had a business deal go south on me about two years ago. It was an important deal to me personally. It really tortured me that I hadn’t been able to see the ways that deal could fail. What I do to manage failure is try to understand the lessons inherent in the failure. For example, was I being motivated by greed, or need for significance or importance? What was my motivating factor when I entered the transaction? Where there signs I can see now, with hindsight, that I ignored? If so, why? I think that all of life is a design to awaken us and especially failures. If I look at it like a curriculum, that helps me to take away the teachings- I try to assume we are all innocent, and we are all learning- and encourage myself to learn without feeling guilty or ashamed.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I think that there are areas of human experience that we still haven’t really brought into a more conscious part of our awareness: money, sex, and power. While a lot of my work is in bringing money and power into a new framework of understanding, I think that human sexuality is a super interesting area to explore. I just don’t have the time to develop this idea, but when I lived in France women would receive pelvic floor rehabilitation so they could return post birthing babies to healthy sexual function. That rehab is now something you can do with a take home device and on your phone, so I want to see someone build a business around this idea (I can give more detail on what the idea is if helpful)

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

A business associate just held a charitable event for victims of domestic violence in a place called Lotus House and I saw a beautiful picture of her at the center with one of the women’s babies. I printed the picture and framed it- my love language is gift giving and I think that showing you care and notice what is important to people is the best way to build trust in the business relationship.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I loved “Beef”. It is the best mix of old theater type constructs and art with modern TV. It also is brilliant because it starts off like a revenge narrative but gets super deep and spiritual by the end.

Key learnings

• Always do the least appealing task first, every day and all day long.
• There is great benefit to the dark in life, it has a purpose and something to teach us.
• Try to take every moment as a puzzle and the solution to the puzzle is to move the moment closer to love or awakening, so that it guides what you do from moment to moment.