Years before its distressed bond fund blew up, Third Avenue Management lost its mojo. The firm founded in 1986 by Martin Whitman has been shedding assets since before the 2008 financial crisis, hurt by poor performance and an exodus of managers. Two of Third Avenue’s four remaining funds trail 98 percent of peers over the last five years. The firm’s assets, which reached $26 billion in 2006, sunk to $8 billion at the end of November. The money manager has also been bleeding talent since Whitman turned over his flagship Third Avenue Value Fund in 2012 to Ian Lapey after it lost 21 percent the prior year. Lapey left ... (full story)