NFL Players' Podcast

Every NFL player has made choices that shaped his future: the college he signed with, the team he picked in free agency, the person he married. The 1Hundred Year Family series continues with the choice that decides whether wealth lasts a hundred years: who you hire to manage it. Riccardo Stewart opens with a story from a Mayo Clinic speaker about the "second hour," the extra time that turns a standard checkup into an accurate diagnosis, and what it means for financial advice. Jeff Locke explains the difference between a track home and a custom home when it comes to your investments. Sam Acho breaks down the suitability standard versus the fiduciary standard, and why "fiduciary" comes from the Latin word for trust. Zach Miller asks the question most players never think about: will your advisor still be there for your kids and grandkids? Jeff closes with practical resources to help you choose wisely.

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Article to Read
• The Decision Is Hard — Especially When You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, by Travis Chick, CFP®, CPWA®, AEP®: https://www.athletefamilyoffice.com/resource/the-decision-is-hard-especially-when-you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know?utm_source=awm-capital&utm_medium=streaming&utm_campaign=ep-77-choosing-wisely&utm_content=show-notes

Chapters
00:00 Welcome: The 1Hundred Year Family And The Choices That Build It
01:17 The Second Hour: What A Mayo Clinic Story Teaches About Advice
03:04 Broker Or Family Office: The Two Choices Most NFL Players Face
03:55 Track Home vs Custom Home (Jeff Locke)
05:55 Suitability vs Fiduciary: Who Is Your Advisor Working For? (Sam Acho)
08:20 Built For 100 Years: Will Your Advisor Outlast Your Career? (Zach Miller)
10:35 Three Resources To Help You Choose Wisely (Jeff Locke)
11:31 Closing: The Decisions We Make Today

Creators and Guests

Host
Jeff Locke
Wealth Strategist and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) at AWM Capital
Host
Riccardo Stewart
Former college character coach and Director of Human Capital & Family Leadership
Host
Sam Acho
Director of Human Capital and Impact and an in-studio and game analyst for ESPN.
Host
Zach Miller
Former NFL player and current CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®)

What is NFL Players' Podcast?

The podcast by NFL players for NFL players. Each week, we break down the biggest events in football and how they directly impact a player's career and money.

Join Former NFL Veterans Sam Acho (Bills, Bucs, Bears & Cardinals), Zach Miller (Seahawks & Raiders), Jeff Locke (Vikings, Colts, Lions, 49ers), and college coach, Riccardo Stewart, for a raw and unfiltered conversation about the game, the business, and how players can achieve generational wealth.

Zach Miller "The Truth": A
hundred years is a long time.

The success rate of even
being good after that fourth

generation is about one percent.

So you're already in a difficult spot.

It's really the team of
experts, that you're gonna hire.

Do you want them to work with two
hundred, two hundred and fifty

people or only thirty families?

Do you want that single advisor that only
cares about your investment portfolio,

that's gonna retire in ten years, and then
you're gonna be having to find a new one?

Or do you want the one that's
gonna be built for your whole

family, generations after you,
that's also a hundred-year company?

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Hey,
I'm gonna welcome you guys back to

another episode of the AWM NFL Podcast.

My name is Ricardo Stewart, and
I'm your host, and I'm joined

with my friends and coworkers.

We got Sam Acho, Jeff
Locke, and Zach Miller.

Over 20 years of NFL playing experience
here, and experts now in this financial

space that we find our- ourselves in.

And so guys, we're gonna continue with
this theme that we've been talking about

internally and also on the podcast,
and that is what is 100-Year Family?

How do we become a 100-Year Family?

Why is it hard to become
a 100-Year Family?

And, and today, as we're thinking about
building a 100-Year Family, like, has

to be some choices that have to be made.

Meaning, if I'm an NFL player, and I'm
playing on the field, and I'm being the

expert that I need to be, my family needs
to know that there are a team of people

hired to be able to help us create,
sustain this multi-generational wealth.

And so choices that we make today,
they matter in terms of our outcome,

and we all know about that, okay?

Though, our listeners, you know
you've chosen a college to go to.

Um, oftentimes when it come to
free agent, you've chose, "Okay,

what team do I wanna play for?"

Knowing that those choices have
an impact on your future, right?

All of us on this screen, we've chosen,
uh, our wives and they chose us.

I wanna- don't wanna make it
seem like we're the only ones

who just chose them, right?

We live in a different day, my guy.

So the choices matter, and I wanna
talk about that in particular.

So let me set it up with this Um,
years ago I had the opportunity

to listen to a few talks.

It was kind of like a TED Talk.

Um, but they invited a few in to listen to
different speakers, and they had someone

come from the Mayo Clinic here in Phoenix,
which I thought, "Hmm, interesting,"

talking about how to serve clients.

And this particular individual was
phenomenal, and he talked about

something called the second hour.

And what he meant by that is the
first hour, w- even when you go to

someone like the Mayo Clinic and
you're trying to figure out what

is going on, do I have cancer?

Whatever it may be, they spend an
hour, which is typically longer than

most doctors just trying to diagnose
what's happening with you, and they

ask all of the, the typical questions.

And he found the Mayo Clinic
let him go a second hour.

The second hour he began to
dig deeper into their stories.

How were you raised?

What sort of things happened?

Were there any car accidents?

Were there any trauma?

And what he found was it was the second
hour that allowed him to have far more

accurate diagnosis to be able to truly
serve the patients in which he had.

And I thought about that when it comes
to us and serving our clients, that

we don't just ask particular questions
in how we can just invest your money.

But there is, so to say, a second hour
of understanding the totality of the

human, they desire, the life they wanna
live, so that we can understand their

priorities and begin to serve them.

And as people are looking for advisors or
people thinking about switching advisors,

it's going, hey, before you jump in, you
might just be getting into a one-hour or

first-hour advisor as opposed to a family
office, which is gonna be more akin to

a second hour to be able to understand
and give advice and recommendation to

everything that your money touches.

And so choosing someone to
serve you financially, typically

there's two big areas you have.

You typically go to a broker or you
find something more independent or a

multifamily office or a family office.

There's definitely other choices,
but we find with NFL athletes, those

are the two, the two ones they have.

And so first I'm gonna start with you,
Jeff, and the question I have for you is,

when you're choosing between a broker or
a family office, oftentime we, we, we use

a picture of track homes that you see a
bunch of homes being made in a community

that are awesome homes and nice and new or
open-air architecture where you show up to

a land and you say, "This is what I want.

Here's where I want it," and so forth.

And so picking up on that, what
does that really mean and why is

that important when choosing wisely?

Jeff Locke "The Professor":
Yeah, so tract home, right?

You just do the same
thing over and over again.

Plop the houses down, get them out fast.

You know, you got a couple options.

There's usually like a menu.

You can have this color wall,
you can have that color wall.

You can have this type of countertop,
or like other type of countertop.

Maybe a light fixture.

Three choices for that, tract homes
are great for a lot of people, The

average person just needing to retire
in their sixties, seventies, right?

The options might be great for
you, Most people-- A lot of

people, tract homes are great.

But there's no customization.

The way I think about it is tract
homes are, here's the investments.

There's only a couple, and I'm
gonna shove you into them, right?

We're gonna make you live with the
investments that we have on the menu,

Rather than the other way around.

That's the custom home.

That's open architecture, where
you start with what are your goals?

What are your priorities?

What do you value?

then you go and find the right people,
the right products, or the right

components of the home to build around
what you want, rather than just shoving

you in to what's already pre-built.

So there's a very big difference
and again, track homes.

My parents, tract home's cool, right?

Sixty, seventy, just trying
to live out their retirement.

A thirty-year-old professional athlete
trying to do multi-generational

wealth, a hundred plus years,
that tract home ain't gonna cut it

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": That's good.

So who you choose matters.

Sam, this next question is, is for
you, and what many people don't ask

when choosing advisor or leaving
advisor and going to n- to the another

advisor is what is the relationship
between the client and the advisor?

Are they the same on the broker side
as they are on the independent side or

is it something completely different?

Sam Acho "The Mayor": No, it's a, it's,
it's a, it's a really good question

that oftentimes doesn't get talked about
or even doesn't get, um, explained,

the difference between a fu- fiduciary
standard and a suitability standard.

Jeff just gave the example of the
track homes of-- and that's more of

the idea of a suitability standard.

It's, uh, the, the way you would think
of it is it's very, like, product driven.

What's the product?

How do we get the people to
fit into our product, right?

If as long as it's suitable and it's,
it's good enough, it kinda is in

that range, then you're approved, and
boom, you got your track home, or in

this case, you got your investments.

That's for, you know, registered
representatives and also for,

you know, insurance agents.

That's suitability standard.

But there's a different standard that is
available, but that not everyone either

knows about or talks about, and that's
the idea of this fiduciary standard.

And the word fiduciary comes,
I believe it's from the Latin

word fiducia, which means trust.

And that standard isn't solution--
it isn't, uh, product driven, but

it's more human driven or solution
driven, trying to find an answer.

So that standard means you actually have
to put the interest of the client, the

person you're serving, ahead of your own.

So it can't just be a suitable
track home in this example.

It has to be that, for purposes
of our example, that custom fit

that's custom for that individual.

So it's a totally different
standard that many advisors

actually have a chance to choose.

You can choose if you're in that
suitability area, or you can choose

if you're gonna be an advisor that
has that fiduciary standard, which

means you're putting someone else's
interest, by law, ahead of your own

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Love that.

It's a great answer.

It's a great answer and choosing wisely.

Zach, we talk about a hundred-year family,

wealth.

I'm thinking about a hundred-year family
for me, right, at forty-four or one of our

clients at twenty-five or twenty-eight,
I mean, more than likely that's gonna

outlast and outpace my lifetime.

So I'm talking about my
kids and my kids' kids.

So when it comes to choosing wisely an
advisor, how does that begin to affect

how I choose considering the fact that
my advisor will probably not be there for

my second to third generation of kids?

And so how does that work and what type
of questions should I be thinking about?

Zach Miller "The Truth": off,
A hundred years is a long time.

So the success rate of even
being, um, good after that fourth

generation is about one percent.

So you're already in a difficult spot.

So it's really the team of experts that
you're gonna, that you're gonna hire.

Do you want them to work with two
hundred, two hundred and fifty

people or only thirty families?

Do you want that single advisor that only
cares about your investment portfolio

that's gonna retire in ten years, and then
you're gonna be having to find a new one?

Or do you want the one that's gonna
be built for your whole family,

your generations after you, that's
also a hundred-year company?

And so you gotta understand the
business you're working with.

A broker at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch,
UBS, they're building a book of business.

That's the business they're in.

It's, it's not-- it's dehumanized.

They're not helping families.

They're building their own book of
business for their own interest because

eventually they're gonna retire, and
that's not what's in your best interest.

Contrast that with AWM, who's advising on
everything, working with thirty families,

that's entire goal is to be a hundred-year
company, a company that lasts with you

not just for your lifetime, but your kids'
lifetime and your kids' kids' lifetime.

And not beholden to p- to passive
shareholders like those Wall Street

firms, that their ultimate…

You know, always when you're,
you're like, "What's going on here?"

Follow the money.

They're owned by passive shareholders that
advisor that works there is supposed to

bring in a profit, versus s- a company
like AWM that's privately owned, has the

ability to think long-term and do what's
best for their that we work with for

the long term, because it's, it's about
how can we make NFL players successful

in the long term, not the next, you
know, five months, six months, one year.

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Jeff,
you got pilots in your family, you got

a pilot background, so I'm gonna let
you go ahead and land the plane here.

And, um, with that, what are
practical ways to educate

myself when I'm choosing wisely?

So put yourself in the shoes of
where you were as an NFL athlete and

going, okay, what are some things
you would've known, wanted to know

practically to go, "What should I ask?"

Jeff Locke "The Professor": Yeah,
it took me a lot of years to learn.

I'm gonna give you guys a
little easier way to learn with

three quick resources, right?

First, a book we recommend that a lot
of people, Get Wise to Your Advisor,

audiobook, however you wanna read it.

It is one of the best in terms of knowing
the industry and knowing who you're

working with, We're also gonna put a
link in the show notes to an article

someone on our baseball side of our firm
wrote that breaks down the industry.

You know, insurance brokers versus
brokers versus independents, um, and such.

And then Rick's gonna send or gonna tell
you our phone number here in a second.

We have essentially a questionnaire
that we to anyone that wants it, which

helps you ask the questions you should
be asking to your current advisor

or any advisor you're considering,
which essentially is going to help

you understand where they are in
the industry and how they are set up

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": The
decisions we make today affect the

life that we want for tomorrow.

And so if you're thinking about a
hundred-year family, truly, truly

wanting that multi-generational
wealth, who you ch- choose, the t-

the team that you choose matters.

Um, so like Jeff said, if you have
any questions or you'd like some of

those resources that we have, we'd
love for you to reach out to us.

Our number is 602-989-5022.