Companies Specialize In Helping Athletes Set Financial Game Plan

The pay of professional athletes is the stuff of legends. Million-dollar signing bonuses and contracts in the tens of millions of dollars are noted regularly in the sports pages.

Getting much less attention, however, is what these athletes do with their money. Perhaps that is understandable, because the contracts are so large that it is easy to think that, once signed, they solve all of an athlete’s money problems forever.

But Christopher I. Franklin knows better. A lawyer who formerly worked at Deloitte & Touche, the big accounting firm, and at ProServ, the big Arlington, Va., sportsmanagement firm, he knows of plenty of cases in which the money was lost, frittered away or just plain ran out.

So Franklin has set up shop in Alexandria, Va., to help professional athletes handle their money and plan for life after sports.

What his firm, Titan Financial Services Inc., will sell is advice, he says. The company is not a stock brokerage or insurance agency, though it will help clients buy insurance and make investments, charging a fee for its own services.

The company will focus on black athletes, says Franklin, who is black. He believes that such athletes are at a disadvantage, because many are are “young people who did not talk finance around the dinner table” when they were growing up.

Franklin thinks he brings a special understanding to his minority clients and hopes that will help him in a highly competitive market. “There are very few minorities involved in financial planning for professional athletes,” he said.

“A lot of young kids are not receiving good advice” on either handling their money or building a life after sports, Franklin says.

Athletics is different from most other lines of work, because the big money often comes at the beginning of what is likely to be a very short and uncertain career. In sports like football and, to a lesser extent, basketball, the threat of a career-ending injury lurks in every game or practice.

Franklin preaches what he calls the “Three Rs”: read your contract, recognize investment risk and realize the effect of taxes and personal spending.

Agents and marketing representatives are fine for negotiating contracts and lining up endorsements, Franklin says, but they ignore athletes when their playing days are over.

Among his clients are Atlanta Falcons defensive end Chris Doleman, Orlando Magic guard and forward Dennis Scott, Philadelphia 76ers guard Johnny Dawkins and former Atlanta Hawks guard Travis Mays, now playing basketball in Greece. These were Franklin’s original clients.

Titan Financial faces plenty of competition. Full-service organizations like ProServ and other financial planners have developed programs for athletes and compete for players across the country.

Most cities with professional sports teams now have financial planners. To be successful, such firms need something that sets them apart and inspires confidence.

Former Washington Capitals goalie Bernie Wolfe heads a financial planning firm, Bernard R. Wolfe & Associates in Rockville, Md., with nearly 50 professional athletes as clients.

Wolfe’s firm does general financial planning, and athletes are about a quarter of its clientele. “We didn’t plan on going into that business,” but it became clear there was a need, Wolfe says.