Athletes May Live a Very Long Time in Retirement: Idea File

1. Team recruiting programs shape his marketing timeline.

College recruiters tend to know who the top baseball, basketball and football prospects are by the time they are freshmen in high school.

For Kaymore, the prime marketing period starts about a year before a player will go through a college signing or professional team drafting process.

2. He sees himself as a member of a board of advisors.

A player's board will likely include an accountant, an investment manager, a banker, an estate planning lawyer, an insurance advisor and the player's parents, Kaymore said.

In some cases, he sets up the board. In other cases, another professional brings him on board.

3. Successful athletes tend to have complicated, relatively unusual needs.

For the most part, "there's no wife or children," Kaymore said.

But players tend to be younger than other clients, and they may have less business experience than young clients who became wealthy by starting companies.

The players often have multiple residences, wage income from their teams, and self-employment income from speaking engagements, endorsement contracts and any businesses they have started.

Kaymore himself does not have clients with significant non-U.S. income, but he said some athletes, such as hockey players, may need help with visas, as well as the mechanics of earning high levels of income in two or more countries.

"There is a lot of complexity," Kaymore said.

4. Parents and siblings may be an important part of a client relationship.

When talking to potential clients, Kaymore focuses on those who appear to have reasonable, supportive parents.

Although the athletes and parents may not have much personal experience with wealth planning, they often do a good job of using the internet to educate themselves, he reported.

Parents and siblings who want to be involved can play important roles in managing an athlete's off-field operations, such as managing endorsements, he added.

5. Kaymore aims to put sturdy, low-risk life and annuity products in his toolbox.

In addition to loss-of-value coverage, he likes whole life and non-variable indexed annuities.

One knock against annuities is that the annuity holder might lose access to quick sources of cash.

Athletes can use investments in bonds, real estate and similar holdings to provide liquidity and address any concerns about annuities locking away assets, Kaymore said.

These days, he said, he's aiming for strong levels of asset protection and annual returns of about 6% to 7%, not sky-high returns that put assets at risk.

Ronnie Kaymore. (Photo: Kaymore Sports Risk Management & Consulting)