Peter Borowsky, UBS managing director.
Financial advisor Peter Borowsky had a passion for sports but zero contacts in the sports world when he decided to break into advising pro athletes 22 years ago. Today, the UBS managing director is so tight with his National Football League clients that they consider him practically a member of their families.
Among those clients are New England Patriots twins Devin and Jason McCourty; Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles; and free agent Marshawn Lynch, who played for the Oakland Raiders last year.
About 60%-70% of Borowsky's $670 million book of business comprises pro athlete and entertainment industry clients. Athletes constitute 85%-90% of that.
Quarterbacking the financial lives of football players takes more than technical smarts. It demands a laser focus on relationship-building, not only with the athletes themselves but their agents.
New York City-based Borowsky, 53, does it all as a solo practitioner with the help of two assistants. Last year the Financial Times named him to its 2018 list of Top 400 Financial Advisors in America.
The name of the game for serving football players is to ensure that they have financial security for the rest of their lives. Borowsky's NFL clients, like most football stars, are young men who have catapulted from having little or no money to suddenly earning millions — but, given the rigors of football, only for a short time.
He chooses appropriate types of investment vehicles, helps clients budget and save, and nurtures these relationships by being super-attentive and available 24/7.
In 1997, Borowsky, then at Smith Barney and working mainly with entrepreneur, doctor, lawyer and corporate executive clients, sallied forth to take a crack at pursuing a niche in the sports arena. A year later, he had his first pro athlete client.
Concurrently, the FA began advising entertainment industry folks, particularly actors and actresses, whom he met through the athletes' business managers.
Borowsky spent eight years cultivating football players and their agents before the sports specialty became a significant segment of his book.
The long-standing wirehouse FA started out in 1989 as a Merrill Lynch trainee, then, over the years, moved to PaineWebber, Smith Barney, Prudential and Morgan Stanley, bringing his boutique practice to UBS in 2015.
He mostly divides his time between his office on Park Avenue and traveling to see NFL clients for fruitful face-to-face meetings.
THINKADVISOR: What's the secret to your success with NFL players?
PETER BOROWSKY: The agents trust us. The second part is the service we give our clients. We know them; they know my two assistants. My [senior client service associate], Kathy Creegan, has been with me for 24 years — she's like a mother to these guys! I get to know them very well. I'm on planes visiting them for life-changing events and family events. I work directly with them, not with their agents.
And the agents appreciate that, I presume?
We're always there to respond to our clients. The agents love that because they don't want to get phone calls from players asking financial questions. So lifting all that off their plate is fantastic for them.
As an advisor, how do you help the players most?
By taking all the worries about finances away, they can concentrate on what they do best — playing football. If they're worried about money all week, how do they perform on Sunday?
Devin McCourty, left, and his twin brother, Jason. (Photo via Shutterstock)
Why is hiring a financial advisor who knows the ins and outs of the NFL compensation system important?
Choosing an agent is of immediate importance, of course. But if the player loses money investing or spends a lot of their money and then has nothing in the bank, it doesn't matter how much the agent got them in a great contract.
To what extent are your football clients knowledgeable about finances?
At the beginning, not much. They aren't exposed to that in college; and for many of our clients, when they were growing up, their families didn't have a lot of money or a financial advisor. So they're like lottery winners — going from college, where they didn't have much money, to all of a sudden having new-found wealth. A lot of learning has to be done. Part of our job is to be a teacher.
What's your investing strategy for them?
