UBS seeks to keep NFLers from fumbling after pro success

With professional athletes often viewed as easy marks by fraudsters, there has long been a call for solid financial advice for people who've suddenly amassed wealth by playing sports.

But it's not just rampant scams that athletes should be wary of. There's also a crying need for young athletes to adopt savings and spending habits that will serve them well not just while they are at the top of their game but also after long after they've had to hang up their gear for good.

This is perhaps true for no one more than for players in the National Football League, where the average salary approaches $3 million a year but the average career barely tops three seasons. Now UBS Group is joining the ranks of firms that have been approved by the NFL players union to provide advice meant to help young athletes make whatever money they earn during their prime years last for the long haul.

Adewale "Wale" Ogunleye, a managing director and the head of the athletes and entertainers client segment at the Zurich-based bank, said there's nothing odd about a young person knowing little and perhaps being a bit naive about personal finance. What is unusual for most NFL players and other professional athletes is that they one day find themselves faced with the prospect of making millions in their 20s, and then having to live off those earnings after the spigot is just as suddenly shut off.

Ogunleye is in as good a position as anyone to understand the sorts of dilemmas and temptations that life in the big leagues can present. He enjoyed an 11-season career in the NFL, playing as a defensive end in Miami, Chicago and Houston before retiring in 2010.

Photo courtesy of UBS

He joined UBS in 2019 and now helps oversee a team of 28 advisors who guide athletes and other entertainers through difficult financial decisions.

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"When the earning potential is short lived, and any catastrophic mistake made early on will be multiplied — because you're not going to make this kind of money as you get older — it's really imperative that these athletes get it right the first time," Ogunelye said. "Because this is probably going to be the only time that they're going to receive this type of funds."

Preparing players 
UBS now joins big names like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Alliance Bernstein and Bessemer Trust on the NFL Players Association's list of firms approved to provide financial advice to current and retired pro footballers. Brandon Parker, the senior manager of the player union, said UBS was appealing because of its special division dedicated to helping athletes and artists.

"And the fact that they have a former player heading it up gives a sense of comfort to the players who may get involved with them," Parker said.

UBS started its Athletes and Entertainers Strategic Client Segment in 2020 after recognizing a far-reaching need for professionals who can help athletes and other entertainers, often young and inexperienced, cope with the pressures and temptations of newfound wealth. Since then it has helped air two television programs on the athlete-controlled PlayersTV — one of them a "reality TV" show in which Ogunleye presents the stories of successful athletes-turned-investors.

Ogunleye agreed that the NFL Players Association is probably UBS's  biggest client so far for its athletes and entertainers segment. The NFL, after all, is the most lucrative sports league in the world.

"It does feel good to have a relationship with the NFLPA, knowing that they're trusting us with their players," Ogunleye said. "If you're into sports, this is probably huge. If you're not, it's probably still big because of who the Players Association is and the people they represent."

UBS's biggest competitor in the market for managing athletes' money is Morgan Stanley, which maintains its own global sports and entertainment division. Parker said the addition of UBS as an advisor approved by the NFL Players Association in no way shows dissatisfaction with the other firms on the list. Rather, it was born out of a desire to give players the fullest range of choice possible.

Protecting players
Lou Straney, a regulatory expert at Arbitration Insight who has worked on cases involving athlete fraud over the years, said it's one thing to offer financial services. What he'd like to see more firms do, he said, is to reach out professional players before they realize they need to start saving or, in the worst case, find themselves victims of scams.

Straney joined the University of Oklahoma College of Law in March 2022 to organize a two-day event at which helping athletes avoid fraud was the main topic of discussion. Straney said scammers love to target pro athletes.

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Not only are large amounts of money at stake — the law firm Ernst & Young has estimated athletes lost $600 million to fraudsters between 2004 and 2019 — but the relative youth of most players means many haven't had the types of experiences that would help put them on guard against scams.

"I'm glad to see firms start to take this seriously," Straney said. "But besides just conducting a marketing initiative, they should be reaching out to schools and organizations to stop it from happening."

Parker said the NFL Players Association's chief means of letting athletes know what services are on offer is through four player representatives it has on hand in each team's locker room. These specially designated liaisons are often older, more experienced teammates who are there to answer questions and help their younger colleagues think a bit more about the future.

"At some point, we hope they will see all the things we offer in our suite of services," Parker said. "And then it's there if they need it."

Ogunleye said it also behooves institutions like UBS to make sure they are not talking over the heads of people who may have never had occasion to make complex financial decisions before.

"We've got to do a better job of meeting our clients where they are, and being able to explain exactly what we do," he said. "We know why it's important for them to listen to the advice that we have, but what about speaking to them in a language that they understand? And I think, too many times, big institutions instead expect these players to meet them where they are."