Athlete CEO

After another week of wild financial markets, we saw another historic first yesterday where the price of oil actually went negative. Does this mean you should run out to your local gas station and have them pay you to store gas? Well, no - but it does drive home an important point:

You can't predict the future.

At the end of the day, trying to outguess the public markets is a great sales pitch but in reality is just not in the best interest of clients.

So should this new development in oil markets make you change up your overall investment strategy? Listen to this week's episode for Erik and Brandon's commentary on this event and their thoughts on the following questions that we've received over the last few days:

• What impact does this oil price dip have on me as an investor?
• Is now the time to invest in oil?
• Is there a way to time public markets like oil to capitalize on dips like the one we're seeing now?
• What are some approaches to consider when making a concentrated risk?
• Why making informed decisions in the private markets might be your best bet

In a time where it can feel like a lot of things are out of our control, there are still some things you can do that add tremendous value to your portfolio. Last week, we discussed one of the methods - tax-loss harvesting - and we'll continue this week by looking at asset location.

At its core, asset location is essentially a method of managing multiple accounts as one single portfolio. Research has shown with this practice that you can add .5% to .85% to your after-tax return, which over a 30 year period can be up to an additional 15% after-tax return.

Some investments in your portfolio - like bonds - pay you interest. If this is held in a taxable account, it will be taxed annually at a fairly high rate depending on your tax bracket. This ultimately hurts your take home return, so we utilize asset location to ensure those assets are not taxed annually and instead other assets likes stocks are the ones held in your taxable accounts.

This is a highly-specialized tactic that gets the most mileage from being utilized with our clients that are in the highest tax bracket with high levels of complexity. Listen for more details and answers to questions including:

• What is asset location?
• How does asset location work?
• How can this practice save money over the long-term?
• Who most benefits from this practice?
• How can I tell if my portfolio is utilizing asset location?

On this week’s episode, we’re honored to be joined by Todd Seigler, father of Anthony Seigler – first round draft pick with the New York Yankees. We get to hear from Todd on what the draft process was like from the perspective of family members and in working through these areas together as a family.

As a parent going through the draft process, it can feel like everybody is painting a rosy picture about how perfect your son’s game is – it can be hard to sift through all the feedback using data to separate out sales pitch from reality. There are also challenges in setting good boundaries to maintain family bonds, and help to make intentional decisions about the long-term future that don’t rely solely on emotions or chasing shiny things.

Todd offers a lot of helpful insight into this process and throughout the episode, he covers topics such as:

• Going through the draft process from scouting during senior year season to draft day
• The potential of getting distracted by the wrong things that can seem like really good things
• How to have good family conversations to set healthy boundaries
• The importance of staying faithful and committed to your routines
• Avoiding “Draft intoxication”
• How they handled choosing the right people in their inner circle
• What draft day was like for family
• What the transition to pro has been like
• Looking back, what things he wishes he would have known going through the process as a parent

Available wherever you podcast or above.

The last month has been a wild ride in the financial markets. At one point, we were down 34% and then all the sudden we have seen a quick rebound where - as of today (April 7) - the S&P is up 24.7% from its 52 week low that had been set on March 23rd. 

As we mentioned last week, what can happen during these times of flux is that people can tend to rely on asking important questions to the wrong people about what to do with their money. We have seen issues where people have put their trust in experience ("I have lived through this before") rather than expertise ("I'm educated, certified, and experienced in this issue").

In today's episode, we highlight another tactic that can prove beneficial for some called Tax-Loss Harvesting. Topics covered include:

• The importance of expertise over experience
• What is tax-loss harvesting, and what should I know about it?
• The two main benefits of tax-loss harvesting
• When does tax-loss harvesting matter?
• Who should be benefiting from this practice?
• Are there times you should not employ this tactic?
• Is it helpful to have multiple investment advisors?
• Other strategies that can be utilized during this time

On this week’s episode, Erik and Travis talk with Adley Rutschman, catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Adley was selected by the Orioles as the first overall selection in the 2019 Major League Baseball draft with the highest signing bonus in baseball history. He joins us this week to discuss his time playing in college for Oregon State University, going into the MLB draft last year and making the transition from amateur to pro. Adley covers a wealth of topics in this episode including:

• How to handle public pressures of being a highly ranked athlete
• The important things to look at when choosing an agent
• Utilizing time in college to hone in and build up skills
• The mental development and other key contrasts that accompanies going from college to pro
• Walking through what draft meetings with scouts were like including some of the most unique questions he got
• Sharing how he maintained good family dynamics despite the high stress level the comes with the draft
• What it was like on draft day
• Mentally preparing for the back and forth of salary negotiations
• Advice for players and their families as they’re about to enter the draft​

Available wherever you podcast or above.

The financial market upheaval that has accompanied the COVID-19 epidemic has been a teachable moment for investors. The S&P had been down 34% and investors wondered if it would ever stop falling. People were asking if they should take their money out of the markets - another form of trying to time it. Then, in 3 days, the market bounced back 17%, which was the biggest 3-day gain since 1931. As of March 31st, markets have reclaimed nearly 50% of the decline that happened. 

So then, can we confidently claim that this is the bottom? Does it even matter if we can know or not?

There are plenty of voices online and in the media who are ready to tell you who to buy and who to sell, but the questions you should be asking are: Who should we trust with our financial advice? Who is actually qualified to give that advice? 

Listen to this week's episode to hear Erik and Brandon discuss these topics and more.

This week, Travis and Erik interview Bobby Stroupe, founder and president of Athlete Performance Enhancement Center (APEC). Bobby and his team started APEC in 2005 and it has grown over the years to become one of the most trusted sources for athletic performance improvement including accolades from and work with Nike. Bobby and APEC have trained some of the best athletes in the world including NFL MVP and Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes.

There is a lot of uncertainty for athletes in all sports currently as seasons are indefinitely suspended and training facilities can be inaccessible for many. Are there ways you should be utilizing this downtime to stay on top of your game – despite some potential difficulty in accessing facilities? In this episode, Bobby, Erik and Travis talk through this question and address other topics like:

• The importance of structure and consistency • Ways to focus on joint mobility and structural flexibility • Being creative even with limited access to workout facilities • The difference between success and results • How to find a good performance coach including questions to ask and specializations to look for • Resources to learn more on this topic

Available to listen wherever you podcast and above.

Are you familiar with the changes to how an MLB Draft signing bonus is paid out? Historically, teams have split the gross amount into two equal payments over two years, but due to COVID-19 have recently made some important changes that you need to know.

As a player, your ultimate goal is not the gross (before tax) MLB Draft signing bonus amount; rather, it is the net (after-tax) amount. In the past, how you structured your payments - whether they were uneven payments or not - was a huge opportunity for tax planning, but that option has now been eliminated. However, one thing that hasn't changed is how the signing bonus is taxed.

In this episode, Travis and Erik discuss what a signing bonus is, and how the recent changes might impact families and cover commonly asked questions like:

• What changes have been made to the signing bonus structure in 2020?
• How are signing bonuses are paid out?
• Are these true signing bonuses? Or are they wages?
• How does my residency impact the way my signing bonus is taxed?
• What is an abandonment clause and how might it impact my signing bonus?
• What happens when an abandonment clause is removed?
• Now that signing bonuses are paid out over 3 years instead of 2, what are the important implications and opportunities that families should consider?
• When should I start doing the tax planning?
• When is it important in the draft process to bring on certified financial experts?
• Why are players hearing the argument that they shouldn't bring on financial experts if they're only going to earn $100,000 in their first year - regardless of the size of their signing bonus?

More from the MLB Draft Podcast:

• Episode 1: The Draft Opportunity
• Episode 2: What’s My Number?
• Episode 3: Selecting the Right Sports Agent
• Episode 4: Selecting the Right Financial Team
• Episode 5: Tyler Beede on Navigating the Draft and Your Baseball Career
• Episode 6: Eric Chenowith on Do I Need Disability Insurance?

You probably didn’t think we would be talking about disability insurance, right? So, do you need coverage? The answer varies for every individual. We are joined this week by former NBA player and current owner of Leverage, a disability and life insurance firm. In this episode, we discuss questions like:

• As a high school draft prospect, is disability insurance really necessary?
• Is disability insurance even worth it for me?
• If I am currently enrolled at a university, what should I do?
• Will my university pay for my disability insurance?
• What are my chances of getting injured and filing a claim?
• How much disability insurance should I take out?
• Does it just cover me on the field?

Who should I trust with my risk management? In episode six, we are going to breakdown disability insurance. We want you to be well informed of all your options. You have worked hard to get here-we want you to protect what you have earned and what you are going to earn in the future.