The challenges and rewards of advising professional athletes and creatives

Speaking on the podcast, Ben Johnston said advising clients with non-linear career paths came with unique challenges and rewards.

“Professional sports people in particular [have] got an interesting path just to even get to where they are,” he said.

“From the financial side; the tax, accounting, wealth planning; it's quite interesting in its own right. Just given the sporadic nature of income that they earn, the size of the income that they can potentially earn and the fact that it's global income. We're dealing with different currencies, we're dealing with different tax jurisdictions. That in itself becomes quite complex.”

He recalled setting up Johnston Advisory during the pandemic, a way of making his own mark on the way he did business after spending 25 years in public practice. He described starting his own firm as a “life changing” experience, and hadn’t looked back since.

When advising clients with non-linear career paths, Johnston said there was additional pressure to structure wealth effectively, given the comparatively narrow window of time in which his clients were making money. 

“Professional athletes; generally, depending on the sport; have a particular window to make as much money as they can while pursuing the feats in their sport that they're trying to achieve, " he explained.

He added that he’d observed some interesting trends in the way that athletes and performers transitioned into life after their career peaks, with the rise of social media altering the available opportunities.

“One thing that I've really noticed throughout my career is just how people with fame now their transition into life after their career. And it's changed enormously, particularly with social media coming into play as well,” he said.

“Historically, if you're an NRL player, AFL player, a professional surfer, there seemed to be a lot more jobs within industries that supported that, regardless of people's experience or regardless of people's education.

“What I find now, particularly in the last 10 to 15 years, is that the star fades a lot quicker because people's attention spans and quick access to information and content and whatnot is forever changing. So we try to support our clients to make sure that they've got a post career pathway, knowing that jobs within industries are harder to get.”

He added that his clients often had bigger risk appetites than the average person, meaning he often was challenged to give advice that balanced idealism with realism.

“You want to support people to follow their dreams … so, as an advisor, supporting them and giving them the tools to do the best that they can, but also balancing out with giving realistic advice,” he said.

“Not all businesses do succeed, and most actually don't, and trying not to be a dream killer at the same time. So I think that's really quite challenging because I think if you just facilitate all the positive stuff, I don't think you're doing your job well.”