Former Bengals safety Brandon Wilson helps ex-athletes find financial freedom
Having traded his pads and cleats for a suit and a Series 7, Wilson plans to use his experience as a recently retired professional athlete to help others in a similar position.
When Brandon Wilson’s career in the National Football League was cut short in 2021 due to an ACL injury, he wasn’t sure where to turn next.
Having played football his entire life — culminating in a five year stretch as a safety for the Cincinnati Bengals — he started researching alternative career paths, including jobs in cybersecurity and real estate. But nothing stuck. It wasn’t until learning about what financial advisors did that he felt like he could see himself doing something other than football.
Once Wilson sat down with WFA partners Dany Martin and Chase Crump — himself a former professional baseball player — he knew financial advice was the right field. Wilson’s hire as a financial analyst was announced by WFA, an affiliate of RIA platform RFG Advisory, in September.
‘I sat in with Dany, almost like an internship, saw what he did day-to-day… and was like, “Yeah, I think it’s something I’m interested in,”’ Wilson said. ‘I thought about how I can serve [NFL] players and people in general because I didn’t have an advisor until my fourth year in the NFL, and I see the importance of having one nowadays, especially with NIL.’
Wilson referred to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s name, image and likeness (NIL) rule, a policy implemented in 2021 that enables student athletes to participate in commercial endorsements and make money off their personal brands. Wilson’s hire was part of an effort by WFA to serve young athletes across multiple sports dealing with things like taxes, sudden wealth accumulation and NIL deals.
Wilson specifically hopes to help fellow athletes and ex-athletes like himself navigate the influx of cash they receive from brand deals, bounties, signing bonuses and more.
‘You get all this money and you don’t know what to do with it … If you’re not that educated, you likely end up spending most of it,’ Wilson said. ‘But if you have some type of education, or have a team around you, it can help you in the long run.’
Wilson — based in Shreveport, La. — is now on his way to passing the Series 66 exam, having already taken and passed the Series 7 and Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exams. He said he has also acquired certain skills over the years, through his lifetime of playing sports, that will help him help others: teamwork, dedication and discipline among them.
‘I look back on what I did in football. I’m like, “How can I use this in the field I’m in now?”’ Wilson said. ‘When I was out there in the field, I had to communicate and talk to other guys, tell them what was going on, same thing with what I’m doing now … Same thing as far as hard work, just like I’m doing now, studying for these exams.’
Mainly, though, Wilson looks forward to a career of helping others — both professional athletes and everyday clients.
‘I didn’t have anybody to help me. So I feel like stepping into this field, having already been through a lot of stuff that they’ve been through, a lot of stuff that they might go through … I can help them out.’
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