The world of professional sports, despite being a bastion of high-net-worth prospects, has not exactly enjoyed a magnetic effect on the financial advisory profession.

It may be no small wonder. While many financial advisors preach discipline and forethought, the sports world is often a fast-paced place of shady business deals, where millionaires are made and broken practically overnight. That's not exactly the type of environment where advisors can easily get their message across.

Yet some still try-and succeed. Christopher Franklin, founder, owner and chief executive of Titan Financial Services Inc. in Waldorf, Md., has spent time working on both sides of the fence. He spent eight years as a vice president at Falk Associates Management Enterprises and ProServ, full-service sports management firms representing some of the highest-paid athletes in professional sports.

In 1993, Franklin left ProServ to start his own financial advisory firm, specializing in doing financial planning for pro athletes, the majority of them NFL players.

Franklin, however, sees his business more as a mission. The goal: bringing sensible, sound and ethically responsible financial planning services to the professional sports arena.

By ethically responsible, Franklin means that the business is distinctly independent, taking no referrals from or having relationships with sports agents. That, he insists, is a rarity in professional sports.

"Being independent and separate from agent involvement, and other entities we deal with, we make sure that our advice is independent," Franklin says. "We want our products that we recommend to be based on their risk tolerance."

Dealing with clients who are in a fast-money business, Franklin emphasizes the slow and steady approach, both for them and his own business.

Running the business with his wife Marilyn, who is vice president of the firm, Franklin has more than $20 million in assets under management. Most of his clients are either former or current football players, including Chris Doleman, a retired All-Pro defensive lineman with the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers, Marvin Harrison, an All-Pro wide receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, and Shaun Ellis, a defensive lineman with the New York Jets. His clients also include former NBA basketball player Travis Mays and Dennis Scott, a former NBA player and coach.


It's a list of clients that has its own special set of needs, circumstances and pitfalls, Franklin says. In the case of football players, for example, Franklin says financial planning almost becomes a case of Russian roulette. That's because NFL contracts, except for signing bonuses, are not guaranteed. Franklin notes that most of his clients are in a position where one freak injury could wipe out millions of potential income. "When I'm looking at the financial future of a first-year NFL player, I have to remember that their first year might be their last year," he says.

That puts Franklin in the unusual position of working up an investment plan for someone who is right out of college, with an NFL contract that guarantees their financial security as long as they don't get hurt, cut or suspended for contract or NFL league rule violations. Since he essentially has to deal with two thick layers of risk-market risk and the risk that a player could lose his contract-Franklin utilizes an ultraconservative strategy at the start of his clients' careers.

In a typical portfolio for a first-year NFL player, Franklin says, he will put 70% to 80% of the client's after-tax earnings into fixed-income vehicles. The vehicle is often municipal bonds, which Franklin feels are well suited for these types of clients. "I like the fact that they are federal and state tax free," he says. "The after-tax yield is good for a guy in a high tax bracket. Plus it gives me an income stream to build and accumulate capital."

The portfolios often get slightly more aggressive as a client's career progresses, he says, with the extent of change dependent on a client's risk tolerance. It's not unusual for the fixed-income portion to be scaled back to a 60% position in the client's second contract year.

Franklin charges an annual retainer fee for his services which, aside from investment management, includes bill-paying, consulting with clients on insurance and estate planning issues, and business management consulting. A central part of the investment strategy, he says, is to start preparing clients for their post-athletic careers as soon as they get their first contract, Franklin says. "The strategy is to have that money guaranteed no matter what," he says.

Aside from investment management, the other core component of the firm's work is client education. Franklin considers education vital because of the makeup of his client base. His clients are typically young and fresh out of college, with their first steady job coming in the form of a multi-million-dollar contract.

They've also already been exposed to a lot of people knocking on their doors with a number of ideas on how they should invest, or spend, their money, Franklin notes. "It takes a lot of effort to get my message across," Franklin says. "The focus of most of the young people is on spending."

Some people are never going to get the message, he says, which is why introductory meetings are partly aimed at deciding whether Franklin and the prospect are a good match.

"One client I like to stay away from is the checking account client," he says. "Those are the clients who always call you to wire money for them but who are never interested in educating themselves on true financial planning."

Marilyn Franklin, who oversees operations at the firm, says another common trait of pro athletes is that they often come out of college with debt.

It could be a combination of credit card debt, personal loans or family debt they've taken upon themselves, she says. "A lot of the clients are from single-parent homes and their mothers have accumulated a lot of debt to put them through school," she says. "It's not just the client, it's the client and their family."

The firm's emphasis on putting the client's family into a secure position is among the things clients say they value in their relationship with Franklin. Eric Westmoreland, a linebacker who signed on with Franklin after getting drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2001, said he was referred to Franklin by a fellow football player.

"He told me that Chris is an honest person and he's not like a lot of financial advisors that let you do anything you want with your money," Westmoreland says.

He says he talks to Franklin at least two or three times a week, often about family issues that have nothing to do with money. "Not only does he get to know you, but he wants to make sure that your family is comfortable with what's going on," Westmoreland says.

Marvin H. McIntyre, senior managing director of the high-net-worth group at Legg Mason in Washington, D.C., says Franklin is able to exert influence with his clients through trust building. "He has a passion for making sure he does the right thing for his clients," says McIntyre, who is one of Franklin's subadvisors. "He's not glib; he is sincere."

Building up trust with high-profile clients can be tough, he notes. Yet these clients are also among those who need a trusted advisor the most, he says. "I think it's very different because from the minute they become famous, they're hit on by every friend who thinks they have an idea for them."

Some advisors also tend to acquiesce to such clients for fear of losing their business, he notes. "There are certain people who can be intimidated. Chris, by his very nature, is not," he says.

One client who knows about the challenges facing an advisor specializing in athletes is Christopher Doleman, who started working with Franklin in 1985 when he was a financial advisor with ProServ. Doleman then joined Franklin when he left to start his own business in 1993.

Doleman, whose NFL career lasted 15 years until his retirement in 1999, feels that today's athletes are a harder breed to contend with from a financial viewpoint. "I think what happened is that the money is bigger and guys tend to think they can spend more," he says. "I saw players who during the course of the year lived from paycheck to paycheck."

Also, with an entire sports financial management industry competing for their business, it's not unusual for a pro athlete to have multiple advisors through the course of his career, he says. The relationships are often not a good fit. "With 99% of the guys, the bigger the money, the more 'yes' men they have around them."

Doleman says one reason he's remained with Franklin for nearly 20 years is his honest and sensible approach. During the bull market of the late 1990s, for instance, Doleman recalls how Franklin steadfastly refused to put his clients into Internet stocks. Franklin, Doleman says, also called it right by easing out of equities in 1999. "He's not influenced by products and other things that other guys might try to sell you," Doleman says.

Mays, a former NBA player who retired in 2001, feels many advisors who focus on athletes don't have as long a horizon as Franklin does. Mays, for example, says he worked with Franklin early in his career in laying the groundwork for his life after the NBA; he now is an assistant coach for the University of Texas women's basketball program.

"As we got down the line five to six years into my playing career, he started talking to me about plan B," Mays recalls.

As with other athletes, Franklin says the career advice he gave Mays was part of the overall process of preparing his young clients for their second careers and, eventually, retirement.

In the case of Mays, he says, it was a matter of taking his interest in becoming a coach and encouraging him to do the type of networking that would make that transition easier.

"He never stopped being in contact with his alumni, he never stopped being in touch with all the basketball coaches in the department," Franklin says. "All of that was a road toward where he really wanted to be."

It's also an approach that is encouraged with all clients, he says. "We believe that each player should plan for his career after the sport while they're playing it," he says. "They weren't just put on this earth to play sports."