A newsletter about money, athletes, and the financial life nobody prepares you for.
Before we get into this week's topic.
The last two issues ended the same way: ask whoever arranged your cover. This issue asks the follow-up question that matters just as much. Who is that person talking to?
An athlete with real money coming in usually ends up with several professionals around them: an agent who negotiates, an accountant who files, an adviser who plans and invests, and sometimes a lawyer and an insurance broker as well. Each of them is doing a job. Even when each of them does their own job well, expensive mistakes can sit between the jobs, in spaces nobody was asked to look at.
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Different jobs, different rules
An agent negotiates contracts and often endorsements, and is usually paid out of the income they negotiate. An accountant handles tax filing and planning. An adviser helps with planning, saving, and investing. These are broad descriptions, not automatic responsibilities. An accountant engaged only to prepare a tax return may not be reviewing a proposed contract, and an investment adviser may not be coordinating insurance or cross-border tax. What each person has actually agreed to do matters more than their title. These roles are regulated differently, paid differently, and don't necessarily see the same information. In some places agents must register and disclose their fees, and in some countries certain advisers owe a legal duty to act in your best interest. Who owes that duty, and under what standard, differs by country and by type of adviser, so it's worth asking rather than assuming.
Where the gaps tend to appear
Four gaps come up often enough to be worth naming.
The first is the contract that gets signed before anyone checks the tax. If an agent negotiates a deal and the accountant sees it only afterwards, a decision with tax consequences has been made without the person best placed to explain them, including the fees, duty days, and cross-border questions from Issue 15.
The second is the contract that changes without anyone checking the protection. Last issue's point was that cover can stop fitting when a club, contract, or country changes. It's easy for no one's job description to include checking that.
The third is the cross-border picture. An athlete who earns in one country, lives in another, and was represented in a third can have professionals who each see part of it. Tax residence, withholding, and double taxation need someone to see all of it.
The fourth is timing and cash. The person who knows when payments will really arrive isn't always the person setting the budget, the reserve, or the spending limits from Issues 14, 16, and 17.
In many of these situations, the only person who sees everything is the athlete.
How each person is paid shapes the advice
Pay isn't a reason to distrust anyone, but it is a reason to ask. How is each professional paid? Does any commission, referral fee, or other benefit come from a product they recommend, or from another professional? If one professional introduced you to another, does anyone benefit from that introduction? A fee that depends on a decision you make isn't automatically wrong. You should simply know about it before relying on the advice, and it's a question to ask in writing, not an accusation. Disclosure is the starting point. Ask how any conflict is managed, and whether the recommendation would change if that payment or referral arrangement did not exist.
Trust, and track
Trusting the people on your team and independently seeing your own position aren't opposites. Wherever possible, obtain account statements directly from the bank or investment custodian, policy documents from the insurer, and copies of submitted tax returns together with filing acknowledgements where available. A summary prepared by the person managing something is useful, but it should not be your only source of information.
This varies by country and by sport
Roles, regulation, and professional titles differ across countries and leagues, and in some places one person may cover more than one role. This issue is a framework for questions, not a statement about what any specific market requires.
One action this week
Draw a one-page team map. Give each professional a row and note what they're responsible for, how they're paid, and what they know about the advice the others have given. Then send each of them the same written question: what do you assume someone else is covering for me?
Compare the answers. Wherever two people point at each other, or a responsibility remains unassigned, you've found a gap. For each gap, agree who will take responsibility, what they will check, and by when, including any additional fee. Where coordination is needed, nominate a lead contact who explicitly accepts that role. Agree what information may be shared and how, and consider a joint review annually and before a major contract or country change. That person coordinates the work; each specialist remains responsible for their own advice.
This isn't financial, tax, insurance, or legal advice for your situation. That conversation belongs with qualified professionals who can see your actual numbers and documents. But knowing that each of them can do their job well and a gap can still exist between them is worth understanding before it costs you something.
Final Whistle Finance is written by a former professional basketball player and ACCA-qualified finance professional with Big Four audit experience. This newsletter is for educational purposes and does not constitute regulated financial or legal advice.
If you found this useful, forward it to one athlete you know who needs to read it.
Next issue: a trusted introduction is a starting point, not a background check — what to verify before hiring someone to help manage your financial life.