Riccardo Stewart: Hey, I wanna welcome you guys back to another
episode of the A-W-M-N-F-L Podcast.
My name is Ricardo Stewart.
I have the privilege of being your host and I'm joined with my friends,
my coworkers, my partners in crime.
We got Sam Macho, Jeff Locke, and Zach Miller.
Between the three of you guys, we got all sorts of experience financially
and then as NFL players, it's one of my favorite things to do is to
be able to ask you guys questions.
And one of the things that overlaps as NFL players and and former players is.
You're a part of a team and we all have experiences where we've been part of good
teams, we've been part of bad teams, but we know the importance of a team, and
that's what I wanna talk about today.
When, when it comes to building your, let's say, financial structure,
like how important is it to have a team as opposed to a guy, right?
You think about it, so we all know what it's like to, to be like on a youth
team, like you start youth football.
Zach, you coach flag football.
How many coaches do you have with you?
Zach Miller: Uh, flag football officer's, just me out there.
And I've had, I've had a defensive help before, but it's just me.
Riccardo Stewart: It is just that.
So you start off with kids, they're eight, nine, you know, 10 whatever.
You got one coach.
Then you get into tackle football and maybe you get four or five coaches.
Then you get into high school varsity football.
Now you got a position coach.
You got somebody who's a coordinator on offense, defense, special teams.
And then we all know you go to college, you got ga, you got
analysts, you got all sorts of different people, and then on and on.
Because the higher level you go, the more complexity it is.
And I think it's the same thing when it comes to your money.
Like, you've heard me say this before because we all quote notorious BIG
more, more money, more problems.
And then what we say, it's not necessarily more money, more problems, it's the
more money you have, more complexity.
And when you have that sort of complexity, it necessitates clarity.
And so when you're making 40, 50, 60, a hundred million dollars, it comes so
much complexity that when you say from a financial standpoint, I got a guy.
Gosh, is that really enough?
And so I wanna be able to talk about that today.
And so I'm gonna start first with you, Jeff.
And the question I have for you is, what are some of the complexities
that come with wealth that, uh, it takes a team to be able to address as
it as it relates to the NFL athlete?
Jeff Locke: Yeah.
Before I get into detail on the complexity, it's just like.
One person can't do it all first.
They can't be an expert in everything.
There's so much to handle that your money touches.
You can't be an expert in it all.
Anyone that tells you that they are, it's probably full of it.
Right?
And also, one person isn't able to execute everything.
They literally just don't have the amount of time in the day to, to do all the
things you need done for them, right?
So things that come to mind on the tax side, right?
You are not a regular person when it comes to taxes.
Point blank.
You can't walk into HR block and bring your tax docs and have them
actually do it correctly for you.
We've seen it.
It's never done correctly, right?
You need an athlete, specific tax, person investing.
Most people that invest are 50-60 years old finally coming into the money they've
been trying to earn their entire life.
You are completely different.
Your investment strategy should be completely different from
a 50 or 60-year-old, right?
And then the one thing no one wants to talk about is insurance.
We see this messed up all the time, right?
You are riskier than the average person.
Point blank.
You need different types of insurance.
You need experts to help you put that insurance in place.
One single person can't do it all.
Riccardo Stewart: Well, Zach, let's go back to 2007 if I believe that was you.
You got drafted, is that right?
Let's go back to 2007 and you're coming out, you're choosing a agent.
You're doing the things, okay.
Did you choose a guy or did you choose a team and why?
Zach Miller: So mainly I chose a guy.
I guess I ended up with a team because eventually it's, oh, I need this guy to do
my taxes and then I gotta get insurance.
So then I have a guy there.
But that was not a team because they weren't together, they
weren't coordinated, um, they didn't talk to each other.
It definitely made everything more complicated and more complex
for myself than it needed to be.
Um, there's a different point of contact at.
At each different place I worked with.
And so it just wasn't efficient and I didn't even know there existed places
where I could have everything in one place and essentially have a team
that's all coordinated and all working to get the things done that I wanted
done so I could focus on football.
It, it was, uh, you know, investing world.
I didn't realize it, you know.
Financial advisors, they're not all the same.
They all are kind of an a different, where they work at matters to
how they serve you, and so.
If there's, you know, one thing you take away is not every
place you work with is the same.
Whether that's their expertise, have they done it before?
Do they even understand what it's like to be in the NFL world?
That's one of the biggest things I can recommend is, is you gotta go
with people that know your situation.
NFL is so specific that if they, if you get anyone that just works
with the masses, whether that's financial advice or tax advice.
You're, you're doing yourself a disservice because they need to specialize.
It's that team, it's that specialization.
The further you go in football, the more advanced you get as a tight end.
The more further I went in football, the, you know, more expertise, the more
technique, all those things matter.
It's the same thing in the financial world.
As you go further and deeper into wealth, you need experts that know exactly your
situation and can advise you on that.
Riccardo Stewart: Acho.
Okay.
Everybody's like, I got a guy.
I got a guy.
My guy.
Right?
So as somebody who's gone from having a guy, actually a gal, and then switched
to having a team, what were some of the short-term and then long-term benefits,
uh, that you see between the two?
Sam Acho: Yeah, the biggest benefit is just understanding that I have a lot of
needs and you as an athlete, you as one of the top pa pop, top paid players,
not only at your position or in the league, but also like in the world.
I.
You need more than just a person.
When I first came out, I had a guy at UBS and he was a guy.
He was like, yeah, man, I got these investments and those
investments, but he had no idea about the things that also mattered.
IIE taxes, IE, my NFL benefits.
He had no idea about some of those things, so he was a little bit frustrated when I
was like, Hey man, I have these questions.
He didn't have those answers.
Then I switched to another person, which was an individual, but
wasn't a team, and though that person, I had a great relationship.
One thing I've learned is that now having a team, all of a
sudden questions that I had.
They're getting answered because there's a multitude of
experts on our team, on a team.
So for example, the team at the Athlete family office at AWM has four different
CPAs from the four big accounting firms, people who can do taxes, not just
filing them, but also do tax planning.
And oh, by the way, to Zach's point.
They're on the exact same team as a team that's doing the investments.
You know, Ricardo talks about these analysts who just get to higher levels.
Well, it's the same thing in the, in the investment world, there
are analysts, chartered, financial analysts, that's been their whole time
studying what an opponent is going to do or what the market is going to do.
So you, in your specific category when it comes to your wealth, can
gain as much as possible, save as much as possible, and pass that down.
To as many generations as possible.
One person cannot do that.
Not only because of the time, but also because of the skill and the expertise.
It's almost like saying, okay, my head coach is also going to,
uh, be the offensive coordinator.
Defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator is also gonna be the general
manager also gonna handle the salary cap.
Also, it's like, no, you have to have experts.
And so for me, one thing that I've learned in having a team is that now
all of a sudden when I have questions.
It's not the runaround.
It's not this feeling of like, oh wait, you don't want me to ask it.
I'm getting answers because there are experts on my team.
Riccardo Stewart: Yeah, we, we come across athletes like
this NFL players all the time.
Where they get to their second contract, they're making 50, 60, 80, a hundred plus
million, and, and they come to us because they're, they're realizing that they've
been with a guy and they're going, there's some things that are possibly missing.
Jeff, in your experience, as you've seen guys, our athletes leave a guy to
come to a team, what are some of the more common things that they're missing?
Jeff Locke: And the, the biggest thing I'm gonna hit on is, is the tax side.
Right?
You just don't get.
The tax expertise.
We're just with a guy that kind of says, Hey, I got a CPA that I use.
You know, we'll deal with the CPA around like February, March,
and then we're all good to go.
Right?
When you sign a big deal, your tax team should be revving up, ready to go.
They should be in contact with your new team immediately, and they should
be thinking, how do I help you pay the least amount in taxes upfront?
Delay paying your taxes for as long as possible so you can invest that money.
Instead, it's called Safe Harbor strategy.
We see it missed all of the time with guys that sign new big deals.
It's not that people are lazy, it's just they don't have that expertise.
Right?
We see it happen all the time.
Insurance, we talked about, you're way more risky as a human being.
When you sign a 50, $60 million deal, your name is all over every
single headline out there, right?
We gotta make sure you and your family are completely protected on that side.
And we also see like.
How do I give to my family?
How do I give to charity?
How do I give back to my community now that I have more money than
I can use in my entire lifetime?
How do I set the next generation?
There are strategies to do this that need to happen in that first year when you
sign your contract, if you wanna take full advantage and pay the least amount in tax
over your whole lifetime when doing it.
Just a couple of 'em.
I could talk for days on this, what you should be doing when
you sign that new big deal.
Riccardo Stewart: Zach, I'm gonna, I started with you.
I'm gonna finish with you because we said okay when you
were going into the draft 2007.
Well, let's fast forward to get to your second contract where you're
about to make, and, you know, you're about to make life-changing.
Um, giving you the possibility to have multi-generational wealth was
the thought of having a team even in your mind, and why or why not?
Zach Miller: I mean, we, uh, we explored it.
Uh, I explored it with Goldman Sachs, but the problem is they
had a $10 million minimum.
And you're still just getting the investment advice.
No tax advice.
So there were not family offices.
And the family offices that are the best of the best,
they don't work with athletes.
They might dabble in athletes, but they don't specialize in athletes and
they don't work with them specifically.
So really it's it, it wouldn't have helped because there weren't ver,
I mean there just was not as much.
Good advice for athletes as there is now, I can say that unequivocally.
Riccardo Stewart: That's good.
Well, if there's anything that you've heard, you're going,
wait a minute, I got a guy.
Did you just tell me that's wrong?
I.
Um, no, we didn't say that that's wrong.
We're just saying it may not be what's best.
And so if you wanna know what's best or if you have any questions or any
thoughts, please reach out to us.
You can send us a text.
We'd love to send you some resources.
That number is 6 0 2 9 8 9 5 0 2 2.