We demonstrate the ability to calculate electromagnetic sum rules with the textit{ab initio} symmetry-adapted no-core shell model. By implementing the Lanczos algorithm, we compute non-energy weighted, energy weighted, and inverse energy weighted sum rules for electric monopole, dipole, and quadrupole transitions in $^4$He using realistic interactions. We benchmark the results with the hyperspherical harmonics method and show agreement within $2sigma$, where the uncertainties are estimated from the use of the many-body technique. We investigate the dependence of the results on three different interactions, including chiral potentials, and we report on the $^4$He electric dipole polarizability calculated in the SA-NCSM that reproduces the experimental data and earlier theoretical outcomes. We also detail a novel use of the Lawson procedure to remove the spurious center-of-mass contribution to the sum rules that arises from using laboratory-frame coordinates. We further show that this same technique can be applied in the Lorentz integral transform method, with a view toward studies of electromagnetic reactions for light through medium-mass nuclei.