Learn How to Work with Athletes
You have to be patient with the clients, because they are high-maintenance. They are going to take up your time. But it's a finite world, and there are only so many athletes. That's a good thing. --Wilson Hoyle
The locker room is a world that doesn't let outsiders in easily. Hoyle notes that many advisors are lured to the specialty by big clients wash out. It takes time to build clients and a network, he says. "And you have to be patient with the clients, because they are high-maintenance. They are going to take up your time. But it's a finite world, and there are only so many athletes. That's a good thing."
Professional athletes need even more financial advice than ordinary people do because they have shorter careers in which to earn their retirement savings. And the risk of encountering a financial pitfall is relatively high for these clients. Case in point: At least 78 players in the National Football League were defrauded out of more than $42 million from 1999-2002, according to the NFL Players Association. So in 2002, at the players' behest, the NFLPA set up the Financial Advisors Program to create a stable of reliable professionals from which players could choose. These days, the program has about 500 advisors--including insurance agents, estate planners and CPAs. To register, advisors must have a college degree, insurance and at least three years' experience in some form of financial services. They must also conform to a code of conduct. According to Dana Hammonds, director of the initiative, more than 1,000 active players in the NFL use this program, which has been "incredibly successful in reducing incidents of fraud."
-Wilson Hoyle, specializes in serving football players for Raleigh, N.C.-based CapTrust Financial Advisors, in All Star Advisors
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