Peter Sasaki started his entrepreneurial ventures as a macro-hedge fund manager. Currently, he is a managing member of SDS Family Office. Sasaki established SDS Family Office when he opened his single-family office, CGS Associates, to other families.
Russ Prince: Can you explain how you went from being a macro-hedge fund manager to managing member of SDS Family Office?
Peter Sasaki: I had spent 30 years practicing global macro strategies that based investments on macroeconomic and geopolitical trends. I started at J.P. Morgan and then at the hedge fund firm Moore Capital Management. In 2000, I started my own fund, Logos Capital. After 10 years managing the Logos Global Funds, I decided to focus on investing my own capital. I also was interested in accessing expertise beyond investing, so CGS Associates became a traditional single-family office.
Over time, three things happened. One, the investment strategies I was using were proving very profitable. Two, I was spending more and more time talking to other investors, many of them were single-family offices. This led to a few of us integrating our single-family offices under one entity, sometimes referred to as a multi-single-family office. Doing so enabled us to garner the benefits of scale. Three, I was getting more involved with successful entrepreneurs who were interested in working with and becoming clients of SDS Family Office.
The result is that today, SDS Family Office is a more traditional multi-family office. We’re open to new successful clients; however, we are selective as to who we agree to work with. We very much want there to be a strong cultural and philosophical fit.
Prince: Please describe your approach to investing.
Sasaki: I’ve served on the investment committees of several endowments and family foundations, and I’m a big believer in the “endowment model” as the best way to minimize risk and maximize return over long time frames. I apply asset class and strategy diversification to traditional equity and fixed income portfolios by adding real asset, private equity and absolute return strategies.
Additionally, I bring my global macro investing experience and will often tilt asset class exposure around the benchmark based on where the economy is in the business cycle. It’s also important to note that endowments and foundations have distinct advantages in being able to access top—often closed to new clients—investment managers and being treated as tax exempt, so at SDS Family Office we spend a lot of time on assuring top manager access.
Another key aspect of our investment approach centers on integrating tax planning. There are a number of ways we do this depending on the needs and wants of the client and their tax jurisdiction. One very effective way we’re able to address the taxes on an investment portfolio is by placing the investments in a private placement life insurance policy. Doing this requires attention to a number of factors including the client’s time horizon, the client’s other investments, and their tax situation.
Prince: How do you address the non-investment needs and wants of successful families?
Sasaki: At SDS Family Office we primarily focus on investment management, financial risk management, and tax mitigation, but it’s extremely important to be able to problem solve on behalf of clients. We have to understand just what they want to achieve and determine the best possible path. It’s all about the human element. Some of the questions we spend significant time on include: What are our client’s specific goals and objectives? What types of opportunities are they seeking to benefit from? What keeps them up at night? With this information, we are able to deliver an extensive range of solutions to clients because we’ve established a team of carefully vetted specialists.
Concierge medicine, for example, is a great solution for many successful entrepreneurs. The ability to get exceptional medical care quickly—wherever they might be in the world—as well as have access to leading specialty physicians is in high demand. Knowing this, we identified and vetted some of the best concierge medical practices worldwide. Our team of external experts cover a range of areas such as legal, accounting, insurance, banking, complex financial transactions and family security.
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