Investing the Money Of Superstar Athletes
by
Gregory Grant
What happens to professional athletes when the glory days are gone and the million dollar paydays are a faded memory?
Sure, some head into the broadcast booth, but for the most part, sports stars have always been the victims of short careers and bad financial advice. But now, there are financial planners whose specialty is handling these superstars and their major league size paychecks.
"We need to insure they have got adequate diversification because many of these people will not have similar earning power once they have finished playing sport or being featured in their particular celebrity area," said Rodney Woods of Merrill Lynch. "They may in fact generate a second income through broadcasting or some other industry, but it's not likely to be at the same level as their playing days."
And while most of us have to spend too much time paying bills, and taking care of the hum-drum of life, as long as the seats are filled, these top-of-the-line sports stars get it done for them.
"We take care of many of these individuals from the moment they get up in the morning to the moment they go to bed at night," Woods said. "And we do handle all their payments and all their cash flow, so when you put that in a broader context if we're also investing their investable assets in a fashion that generates them a decent income over time clearly, they're satisfied."
Athletes and sports stars may be well compensated, but generally only for a short period of time. So for them, just as with any investor, maintaining a constant income stream from investments is especially important.
In recent years, companies have flocked to the web to set up dot.com sites. Initially retail companies caught the attention of investors and consumers alike.
When to sell a stock is as important as when to buy a stock. The investor that goes beyond just looking at the financial pages will find that this kind of in-depth research will pay off in helping to make wiser investment choices.