To athletes and coaches, young advisers are No. 1

Professional athletes and coaches prefer to work with younger financial advisers, whom they consider to be bold investors.

“Younger advisers tend to be more aggressive, and that tends to match with a lot of players and coaches,” said Dean Harman, 39, founder of Harman Wealth Management in The Woodlands, Texas, which has about $130 million in assets under management.

Moreover, coaches and athletes assume that younger advisers will relate to them better, he said. Risky initial public offerings and volatile emerging markets entice these clients, Mr. Harman said.

He has 15 coaches as clients, including Boston Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills, Houston Texans defensive-backs coach Jon Hoke and Cincinnati Bengals linebackers coach Jeff Fitzgerald.

Because Mr. Harman played college football at Clemson University in South Carolina, coaches feel particularly comfortable working with him.

“You can relate a little better. It has worked out great,” said Mr. Hoke, explaining why he prefers working with a younger adviser such as Mr. Harman. The latter was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad in 1992 and 1993.

In addition to working with coaches, Mr. Harman has advised pro athletes such as former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Scott Winchester.

A competitive fire is one factor that drives the decision to pick young advisers.

“As coaches, we’re competitive, and when you’re competitive, you like to take some chances,” said Mr. Mills, who helped guide the Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

After a few years in the business, Andy Koerner, 45, president of Koerner Walker Wealth Management LLC, began working with pro athletes, whom he found receptive to him despite his youth.

Athletes recognized that he understood technology investments.

Younger advisers often “have much more of an open mind into technology investments coming on the horizon,” said Mr. Koerner, whose Princeton, N.J.-based firm has about $260 million in assets under management.

Seventeen of his 60 clients are pro athletes, including New York Giants center Shaun O’Hara and Indianapolis Colts middle- linebacker Gary Brackett, whom he met through an internship program in which the players participated at his firm. Mr. Koerner also has New England Patriots center Dan Koppen as a client.

Mr. Koerner has found they like to be involved with the financial process, they like a team approach, and they will request that their adviser schedule meetings with money managers that manage mutual funds they own.

“They really want to know about the nuts and bolts of my business,” he said.

E-mail Andrew Coen at [email protected].