Systematic strategies, built to manage risk.
You want the best for your capital, and so do we. Our process continuously filters, tests, and narrows a broad set of strategies into a select group of live models.
Three common ways to invest. One systematic alternative.
Massari's strategies are quantitative and systematic. They are driven by data instead of emotion, built to manage risk, and actively managed by professionals who analyze vast amounts of data for every portfolio.
| Approach | The trade-off | Our systematic approach |
|---|---|---|
| Managing it yourself | You sit through every drawdown alone, deciding in the moment whether to hold or sell with your own money on the line. Managing risk well takes time and expertise that are hard to find between work and family. | You don't go through a drawdown alone. Every strategy is built to manage risk. Position sizes, limits and exits are set before the first trade, and your portfolio is actively managed day to day, in good markets and bad. |
| Hand-picked portfolios | Your portfolio rides on one person's read of the market, and that read moves with emotion and the headlines. No one person can follow every company, and a call made on instinct can't be tested before your money is on it. | Your portfolio runs on tested rules. We research far more companies than one person could follow, and every rule is tested across 20 years of point-in-time data before it goes live. The same rules run in calm markets and stressed ones. |
| Index funds and robo-advisors | Low-cost and diversified, but passive. You own what everyone owns, and the mix stays put when conditions change. | Every position has to earn its place. Data decides what each model owns and how much, and algorithms manage positions as conditions change. |
Each approach has a place in a portfolio. Systematic strategies carry their own risks, including models that stop working as markets change. That is why we test before we trade and monitor for as long as a model runs.
A separately managed account, in your name.
We invest for clients through separately managed accounts: professionally managed portfolios held in an account in your name at an independent custodian. You own each security directly, not shares of a pooled fund.
We match your account to a strategy that fits your goals, time horizon and risk tolerance. From there, we manage it day to day by that strategy's rules. You never have to approve individual trades, and every one shows up in your account.
| Feature | Separately managed account | Pooled fund |
|---|---|---|
| What you own | Each security, directly | Shares of the fund |
| Dividends | Paid into your account | Paid to the fund, then passed on |
| What you can see | Every position and trade, at any time | Periodic holdings reports |
| Cost basis | Your own, lot by lot | Gains distributed to every holder |
| Tax management | Losses can be harvested where a strategy offers it | Decided at the fund level |
| Other investors | Their decisions never touch your account | Their inflows and redemptions can force trading |
| Preferences | Exclusions can be discussed where a strategy allows | One portfolio for everyone |
Built for
Investors who want professional management without giving up ownership, visibility or control of their tax picture. SMAs have long been used by high-net-worth families and institutions for exactly that.
Worth knowing
Minimums are usually higher than a fund's. Every trade appears on your statement, and higher-turnover strategies create more trades and more taxable events. An SMA carries the market risk of the securities it holds.
Massari does not offer a pooled fund today. Pooled vehicles for the quantitative strategies are under consideration for the future; nothing here is an offer of any fund interest.
You have questions. We have answers.
The questions to ask any manager before you hand over capital. Most of the answers follow from one fact: your money stays in your name.
01What kind of clients do you work with?
Individuals, families and the institutions that invest for them.
- Individuals & families
- Work with Massari directly, with no separate advisor needed and a dedicated contact for your account.
- Family offices
- Separately managed accounts held at your custodian, so you see every position and every trade.
- Trusts & estates
- Accounts held in the name of a trust or estate.
- Plans, charities & companies
- Retirement plans, charitable organizations and corporations.
Already work with an advisor? They can access Massari too
Eligibility and availability depend on who you are, where you live and registration requirements. Minimums, suitability and eligibility are described in our Form ADV Part 2A. Pooled vehicles are under consideration for the future and are not offered.
02What's your investment strategy?
Active, systematic and rules-based, validated with data, executed by algorithms.
- The thesis
- Every strategy starts with a clear goal and a reason it should work.
- The tests
- We expose each model to years of market history and robustness tests to try to break it.
- The approval
- Once a model holds up through every test, we approve it, and it goes live.
Strategies describe what they are designed to pursue, not a promised result. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal.
03Who holds my money?
Your custodian. Never Massari.
Your assets are held in an account in your name at an independent custodian. Statements and online access come straight from the custodian, so you can check every position and trade without going through us. The custodian deducts our fee from your account, with your written authorization.
- You
- Tell us your goals and decide whether to invest.
- Massari
- Manages your portfolio and decides every trade.
- Your custodian
- Holds your assets, carries out each trade and sends your statements.
Custody keeps your assets separate from Massari. It does not protect against investment losses.
04Are you a fiduciary?
Yes. Massari is held to a fiduciary standard.
Yes. As an investment adviser, Massari owes every advisory client a duty of care and a duty of loyalty. It is a legal obligation, and it shapes how each portfolio is built and managed.
Duty of care
Advice in your best interest, grounded in your objectives, with portfolios monitored for as long as we manage them.
Duty of loyalty
Your interests ahead of ours. Massari may not place its own interests, or anyone else's, ahead of a client's.
Conflicts in writing
Where a conflict exists, it is disclosed to you in writing, including in our Form ADV Part 2A.
05How do you get paid?
By our clients, and only by our clients.
We're fee-only: no commissions, and no payments from fund companies or product sponsors. Most strategies carry an asset-based advisory fee and nothing else. The high-turnover quantitative strategies add a performance fee, offered only to qualified clients, as the rules require.
Minimums and exact fees are set out in your advisory agreement and in our Form ADV Part 2A. We walk through them in your consultation.
06Is there a lockup period?
No lockup. Your account stays yours.
Lockups belong to pooled funds, where your money sits alongside everyone else's and can only leave on the fund's redemption schedule. In a separately managed account, your assets stay in an account in your name at the custodian, so there is no fund to redeem from. You can end our agreement at any time with written notice, and our fee stops on that date.
Every strategy starts with an objective.
Each strategy is built around a goal, such as growth, income or defensive positioning, so you always know what your portfolio is working toward.