By Justin VanFulpen
The new show “Ballers” on HBO depicts Dwayne Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a retired athlete turned financial advisor. If you have been watching the show, you have seen that financial advisors have a large role in a professional football player career just like their agent does. College Football players are recruited just as much by financial advisors as they are by agents.
Financial Advisors are a very valuable asset to a professional athlete’s career and can help an athlete take his earning during his playing career and set him up for the rest of his life and his career after football. Since professional athlete earnings situation as well as their taxes is different than normal situations they need someone on their team who can advise them in the right direction in all aspects of their financial wellbeing. Players need to pay attention just as much as who they select to be their financial advisor as they do who their agent is, if not more since they will be dealing with their money and assets.
Forbes recently wrote an article “How To Select A Financial Advisor”
One thing to find out about a potential financial advisor is he/she a broker/ registered rep; or an investment advisor? When looking at compensation for the financial advisor services a broker may charge commissions or fees. An investment advisor will be fee-only or fee for advice. You can check out the article to see what the differences are.
Some other great questions to ask the potential financial advisors are:
Does the advisor work for a large firm or is he independent?
Does the advisor receive sales commissions, fees, or both?
Does the advisor have experience with the specific issues concerning the client?
Does the advisor have any past or current legal infractions?
With a financial advisor being part of a professional athlete team, time and care is need to make the right choice.