'My team mates' sudden retirements showed me the need to prepare financially'

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
'My team mates' sudden retirements showed me the need to prepare financially'

It was a series of coincidences that led former professional rugby player Dave Lewis to the world of financial advice, but he is not planning to look back anytime soon.

Lewis, a financial planner with Timothy James & Partners, was introduced to the idea of financial planning by a representative of the Rugby Players Association, who had mentioned a previous meeting with a business development manager from Brewin Dolphin.

This manager eventually helped him with his first advice exams, but it was an event before that which Lewis credits as being an eye opener to the world of financial planning. 

Lewis started playing rugby at the age of six and after his GSCEs enrolled with a school that offered rugby training alongside education. He became a professional rugby player in Gloucester before moving back to Exeter when he was 24, and eventually playing for Harlequins in Twickenham, London, in the final years of his career.

When his salary started to jump at age 21/22, and with it his tax bills, he started to think about what to do with the money. At the same time two players in his squad were forced to retire, bringing home to him that a sports career can end at any point and abruptly, leaving players in a precarious financial position if they have not prepared.

Lewis was fully qualified with the CII by the time he retired from rugby (Credit: Carmen Reichman)

 

We all learned very early through a terrible situation that this could end at any point and you know you need to prepare for that.

 

 

"In the same year, a couple of players in the squad actually had to retire. One for injury, he was probably in his prime, and then one who was a little bit older.

"And the guy that retired in his prime had lots and lots of things going on outside of rugby, he obviously didn't want to retire but he had a few properties, which is typical for sports people, he was going into schools and doing coaching.

"But he also got correct insurance to cover sort of loss of income. And then the other guy, who's a little at older, he didn't have such an idea of what he was doing.

"And from the outset... my understanding is that he was a bit more challenged in the transition."

This was also noticed by the other players, he adds: "I think we all learned very early through a terrible situation that this could end at any point and you know you need to prepare for that."

Preparing for retirement

Lewis retired from professional rugby three years ago, when his contract with Harlequins was not renewed. "I had a look around, there were a couple of options, but by this stage we had our daughter and my wife worked [in London], I was getting on and I wasn't enjoying [rugby] as much," he says.

"So one of the options was to actually not pursue any more rugby professionally, so do the semi pro move into the real world, as I call it, which is the option I went down in the end."

A move into the real world while still playing rugby is something players are encouraged by the Rugby Players Association to do.

"They do encourage you almost immediately from when you first start playing to think outside of rugby and what to do if the worst happens or you get let go or injured or something worse like that," he says.

(Credit: Carmen Reichman)

And so he was encouraged to think about his future career while still playing professionally. At first he tried his hand at coaching and sports science, but soon decided it was not for him.

He says he has always loved coaching and mentoring but never on a group level. When he met the business development manager from Brewin Dolphin, his eyes were opened to another potential career that could suit this strengths.

"He was brilliant. When he was talking to me about financial planning, it wasn't just product, product, product. It was very much life planning first.

"So I was lucky in that regard. And I just thought, this sounds really good," he says. The manager then offered to help him with his first exams, "and that was it".

Lewis was a fully qualified financial planner with the Chartered Insurance Institute by the time he retired from rugby. This meant studying before training, between training, and staying after training to study. 

After rugby Lewis joined a St James's Place practice and stayed there for 18 months. But he says that did not quite fit, so when a recruiter got in touch he joined TJP.

TJP is a London-based independent advice firm that mostly works with self-employed business owners in the media and entertainment industries, but also has specialisms.  

Lewis works in a team of six, underneath a lead adviser, but also serves his own smaller clients, who are mainly sportspeople, some of whom he played with in the past.

I would never have been able to retire and just been Dave Lewis, the rugby player, gone media because I just don't have that profile.

"I love looking after them, because it's a way of giving back for me. It doesn't have to be scary, but a lot of times it can be scary to think of what comes after rugby and you know, I feel like I was quite fortunate in having a few good conversations early on in my career.

"And although, like I said, that experience of the two guys retiring was awful for them, it taught me that, you know, I need to actually get on and start this now rather than wait until [the age of] 30/32."

Lewis is now working towards being chartered, which for him is "a confidence thing".

"The label doesn't really matter to me. But you always want to learn, and I've kind of got to one stage, and that's the next stage, so I'll carry on studying even after chartered. It's just about continually improving all aspects of it, like trying to grow."

A suitable second career

For Lewis, financial planning is about helping people live a life that fulfils them. He says he believes financial coaching will become ever more important and trumps money when it comes to financial planning.

"I don't think there's many clients that come in and say, one I want a financial plan, or two I want X per cent yearly return. But they will say, I want to maintain my lifestyle when I've stopped working. And then that's where we're going to say like, 'that's brilliant, what does that look like, talk to me'.

"And then we can obviously map that back to how much that's roughly going to cost."

He says when it comes to rugby players it pays to start financial planning early on. 

"Football may be different but in rugby circles, very few people will be able to retire on what they earn from from rugby.

"I would never have been able to retire and just been Dave Lewis, the rugby player, gone media because I just don't have that profile. There are a few people that can do it. But the majority of people will have to go and find a job to support their family or just themselves."

The skill his background has given him is to understand what it means to transition from one identity to the next, he says, which can be quite bewildering for some if they do not have people to talk to in the lead up to it, or do not have something to go to.

Lewis believes many sportspeople have the skills needed for financial planning (Carmen Reichman)

He says the peculiarity about sportspeople is that they are "low experience but high income".

"I'm generalising here, [but] a lot of times when you get to the sort of incomes that [sportspeople] are earning, even in rugby playing circumstances, you would probably have quite a bit of life experience.

"A lot of them will have their highest earning years at a time in their life [when] they've got the least experience.

"I would love it if people started finance as soon as they came into the academy, that they were getting that sort of education. That would be the ideal scenario."

Lewis says many sportspeople are well equipped to become financial planners after their first careers.

He says: "Sportspeople have developed a lot of skills without knowing it that do lend themselves to financial planning, things like you're probably used to having chats with people, you do it all the time.

"You're very used to communicating and understand the importance of that. You understand the importance of planning and structure because you've very much led a planned life and structured life before.

"But at the same time you would have had lots of things that change and you had to sort of adapt to it and still have the goal in mind. I think those kinds of things you can take into this profession and it will really help you."

carmen.reichman@ft.com