Over the summer the back pages of UK national papers have been dominated by the bi-annual feast that is football’s transfer window.

Over the summer the back pages of UK national papers have been dominated by the bi-annual feast that is football’s transfer window.

The media loves to gorge on every detail of a player’s move from one club to another with most attention being paid to money being paid to the selling club and the player himself.

Player contracts within the English Premier League are rising, buoyed by new television income into the league it is being reported that very soon a player will receive a basic salary of over £200,000 a week.

At the extreme, the growth in the salaries paid to football stars has turned the spotlight on how the financial services sector deals with sports high net worth individuals. Sportsmen and women are recognised as being different. For the most part they are young, cash rich and will enjoy a career that is likely to be over by the age of 35. They need special advice due to not having time during their primary careers to dedicate to long term financial planning.

Some banks, Coutts and UBS amongst them, have for some time offered sports stars bespoke services through their Sports and Entertainment divisions.

Segmentation has enabled the banks’ personnel to develop an area of expertise in their field and to build up a relationship with their clients. At Coutts over 50 per cent of new business comes from personal referrals that create the impression of a special service even if the products on offer are not very different.

It is also helpful to have endorsement from a member of the sports world.

In the UK, former Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic footballer Ramon Vega works for the Duet Group where he believes that his ability to “speak the language” of the sports stars has helped attract backing for some of the private equity firm’s investment funds.

For the most part it is the agents and managers who act as “gate-keepers” to the sportsmen and their income. The large sums involved make it increasingly common for agencies to have their own financial planning division or have close links to a firm of independent financial advisors.

For example the Formation Group which advises Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is closely linked to Kingsbridge Asset Management. Kingsbridge, which also looks after England cricket captain Michael Vaughan markets itself as a bespoke advisory service for sports and entertainment stars, offering both financial planning and investment services.

But types of investments available are limited according to leading football agent Robert Segal. His experience suggests there is little point in taking a high-risk strategy, as sports stars tend to have short careers. He says that the trend is very much for investing in property.

Mr Segal’s clients, who include the England and Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson, have joined a host of media stars, investing in the “Football Villages” development on Spain's Costa Del Sol.

Kingsbridge are actively promoting two property investment funds for their clients while Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand is the patron of New Era Wealth Management, a firm who specialise in property investments for sports stars.

So yes, sports stars are different and with so many people looking to advise and look after their money, the key is to acknowledge what makes them special and appeal directly to it.

In the hunt for high net worth individuals, segmentation is the way to go.

www.square1sports.co.uk