This publication recently sat down with the head of the UK private bank to discuss how well wealth managers target football managers as clients.

Managing a high-profile and wealthy football team is a very lucrative yet stressful job. According to Business Insider, in October 2017, former Italy coach Marcello Lippi was the world’s highest paid manager, earning £18 million ($24 million) per year sitting at the helm of the Chinese national team. The highest paid club manager is Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, who takes home around £15.3 million a year.

This influx of money in football for managers is rather new, and during an interview with this publication, Kleinwort Hambros’ chief executive, Eric Barnett, said that despite the amount of wealth, managers in football have not been paid as much financial attention in the private banking arena as the players.

“I think the managers have been less well catered for,” Barnett said. “A lot of managers weren’t necessarily the highest paid players. If you look recently at the top managers with Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, or Jose Mourinho (who used to be Bobby Robson’s translator at Barcelona), they were players but not paid the most. A lot of the managers haven’t necessarily had the earning before their future career. They need to focus on their financial planning. They have a unique profile in terms of their life cycle financially, and this leads to a unique set of circumstances.”

Kleinwort Hambros recently hosted a finance masterclass for managers of the League Managers’ Association, which is part of the firm’s initiative with the LMA to help coaches with their wealth management needs.  On the day, current English Premier League manager Chris Hughton and former EPL managers Alan Curbishley, who managed West Ham United and Charlton, and Dave Bassett, who was coach of Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest, attended the event.

Barnett, who joined Hambros in 1986 and was named CEO in 2007, also spoke about his firm’s association with the LMA, and what both parties can get out of the partnership agreement. 

“The profile of a manager is that, if they were players their career ended at 30 upwards, and they have always had an unusual earning pattern because of the initial career being over at a relatively young age,” Barnett said. “From a financial planning aspect, there are some characteristics of people involved in sport that a private banking can help with. We want to help the LMA to provide that to their members. To me it makes absolute sense in what they want to, involving us or somebody like us is sensible to help with financial planning. And for us, we will obviously get some decent contacts out of it. But I can see why the LMA would want to team up with a financial institution like ourselves."

He added: “I think it could benefit us. But on the other hand, it is also for us about profile and association. It is not just about hard facts of individual cases. When you are a private bank, you are obviously looking for: how do we spread our word and get more business? We go and knock on the doors of lawyers and accountants, and introduce yourself. Every single banker and asset manager does that. So you have to also think of other ways of starting conversations, with people who may be interested in what you do. Some private banks have a strong association with car racing. I don’t believe it’s because they are going to get many Formula 1 drivers as clients but I think being associated with the sport that they become introduced to new people.”

Kleinwort Hambros has a long association with football, and has been managing money for managers and players from Premier League and English Football League clubs, and internationally, for many years. Sports wealth planning is starting to become a mainstream segment within the wealth management industry, as more money is pumped into the world of football, tennis, Formula 1 and rugby. This publication has spoken to various institutions on the subject, including RBC Wealth Management and Coutts.