It earns an Average Parent rating.
Private equity is central to this institutionally focused boutique, comprising the majority of its roughly $5 billion in assets under management as of November 2022. Founder and CEO Martin Sass remains involved in the latter stages of his career, particularly with finding strategic partnership and acquisition opportunities. Martin Sass ceded lead equity portfolio management responsibilities to his son, Ari Sass, at the end of 2018 as part of ongoing firm succession planning; notably, Ari Sass restructured flagship equity strategy Concentrated Value to hold up to 25 high-conviction names, down from 40. Lipkee Lu has been the lead fixed-income manager since being promoted in 2019 ahead of veteran fixed-income manager Dominic Bruno’s 2020 retirement; Lu is supported by an experienced cast of four fixed-income professionals.
Although M.D. Sass formalized a centralized risk management committee in early 2021, it still lacks dedicated in-house risk personnel, and the committee is headed the firm’s CFO and director of sales and relationship management, which is unusual. Martin Sass still owns 100% of the firm, which is expected to eventually transfer to Ari Sass to take over the family-run business.