Meet the Street: Athletes as Investors

It's hard to imagine that a sports star with a multimillion-dollar contract and a penchant for flashy sports cars could also be a conservative investor.

Leland Faust Chairman, CSI Capital Management

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But that's exactly what Leland Faust, financial adviser to some big names in sports, says many of his clients -- baseball players Paul O'Neill and Rickey Henderson, and basketball player Tim Duncan among them -- are and should be.

Faust is also the manager of the (CSIIX Quote)CSI Equity Fund, a large-cap fund that has averaged an 8% annualized return over the past three years, according to Morningstar.

Here Faust talks about working with celebrity clients and his view of the market.

TSC: What's it like working with sports stars?

Faust: There are interesting stories that pop up over the years. One thing with working with the sports players is the fact that they're so young. It really does influence how you work with them because in a typical situation with a well-to-do business executive, he's had a lot of time to get used to the idea of having money, whereas a sports star typically starts with nothing and is instantly very wealthy.

There's an education process that goes on in working with the sports stars, too. And certainly, sometimes it spills into some questions which you wouldn't get from a Fortune 500 executive because he's been through it.

TSC: Are there some outlandish things that some of your clients have bought?

Faust: You certainly get a lot of questions about cars, although not for investment purposes but for consumption purposes. (Laughs.) Oftentimes you are starting out with the very basics, where you have to explain what the difference between a stock and a bond is.

Then, it's fun to watch the client grow over time to the point where, a few years later, they understand the difference between long-term bonds and short-term bonds and how interest rates affect them, as well as risk and taxes. ...