Private Bankers Target Sports Stars

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore, London

18 February 2002

The launch of a new brochure by Singer and Friedlander, a UK merchant bank, entitled 'Wealth Management For Top Sportspeople' underlines the necessity of accurate tax advice for sporting stars as much as it emphasises the importance of sportspeople to private bankers..

Sportspeople aren't the only community of high-earning, globe-trotting individuals - pop stars, management gurus and models also come to mind - but they may be the fastest-growing sector of this particular market. Scorpio Partnership, a London-based research firm, estimates that European sports stars hold $60bn in private wealth, and that there are 8,500 of them with more than $1m of investible wealth. .

The tax problems of such people are such as to tax (sorry!) the grey matter of even an expert, and a high-flying, recent entrant to the ranks of the peripatetic rich is at the mercy of all kinds of pseudo-advisers, not to mention rapacious national tax authorities. Hence the rush by financial institutions to develop competence in advising wealthy entertainers, and Swiss banks, traditional home of private bankers, have not been slow to develop expertise in this direction..

As in other walks of life, a good testimonial is worth its weight in gold, and the banks have snapped up sportspeople with the right credentials (presumably not including some footballers who are seen in the pages of Hello! magazine more often than on the pitch). UBS for instance has signed Alan Shearer, former English football captain, to act as 'ambassador' for the bank, while Credit Suisse says it tries to recruit bankers who were previously sports professionals..

Unlike conventional banking, however, which supports rising young people until they can develop serious earning power later in life, banking for sports professionals means using today's wealth to support later life. As the Singer brochure puts it: 'Enjoy Today's Lifestyle Tomorrow'.