Tweed Wealth Management has opened a London office for its specialist sports arm, Tweed Sports, in response to a perceived rise in demand from professional athletes for bespoke financial advice. According to the original report in Scottish Financial News, the Lombard Street base will be co‑headed by former professional rugby player and Chartered Financial Planner Jason Baggott alongside long‑time adviser Ross Penman, signalling the firm’s intent to bring a relationship‑led, sector‑specific practice into the capital.

The London launch is framed as a direct response to the unique financial characteristics of sporting careers — short windows of peak earnings, irregular income patterns and a heightened exposure to career‑ending injury or sudden market changes. The firm says the new office will offer a full suite of services tailored to athletes’ needs, including specialist investment advice, retirement planning, inheritance tax strategies, mortgage and protection solutions, and co‑ordinated access to sports‑facing accountants and lawyers.

Speaking to Scottish Financial News, Mr Baggott described the expansion as a practical extension of his own experience: “We’ve seen first‑hand how an increasing number of athletes, particularly in football and rugby, are actively seeking specialist financial guidance to assist them during and after their careers.” His personal background — seven years as a professional player, studies in economics and finance at Heriot‑Watt University and subsequent training through the St. James’s Place Academy Programme — is cited by the firm as central to the proposition he now leads.

Ross Penman’s appointment is presented as complementary rather than cosmetic. According to Tweed’s corporate profile, Penman brings more than two decades in financial services, with a proven track record advising sports and media professionals as well as experience in areas such as personal injury and clinical negligence work. The firm says his experience strengthens an existing international rugby client base and underpins ambitions to serve a broader array of sporting disciplines.

The launch has been pitched against a backdrop of recent high‑profile cases that underscore the reputational and personal risks of inadequate planning. The Scottish Financial News coverage referenced the reported bankruptcy action involving former England international Shaun Wright‑Phillips; a separate business news roundup noted that HM Revenue & Customs had issued a bankruptcy notice and that the player’s representatives said the matter was being handled by his accountant. Tweed’s leaders use such cases to argue that financial difficulty among ex‑professionals is often the result of structural failures in advice, taxation and planning rather than simple overspending. “A worrying proportion of athletes face financial difficulty within just a few years of retirement,” Mr Baggott told Scottish Financial News.

Tweed Sports says it will operate through an integrated network model, collaborating with specialist sports accountants and lawyers to deliver end‑to‑end solutions — an approach consistent with Tweed Wealth’s wider retail advice model, which emphasises holistic planning for individuals and families. The firm’s service pages describe practical offerings such as tailored retirement projections, inheritance planning and intermediary mortgage access that can be adapted to the compressed timelines many athletes face.

Beyond the immediate London fit‑out, the firm has signalled an explicit growth strategy: working further into football and rugby while expanding services for golf, women’s football, cricket and other growing professional sports. Tweed says it intends to develop the Lombard Street office into a dedicated hub supported by a full team of advisers, creating what it characterises as a seamless, all‑in‑one financial service for sporting professionals.

Tweed Wealth frames the move as part of a broader expansionary phase. The firm says it manages around £500 million of client assets and highlights recent industry recognition: at the Professional Adviser Awards 2024 the practice was named Best Financial Advice Firm in Scotland and Northern Ireland and Best Financial Advice Firm to Work For in the UK. The company also points to a growth trajectory since its 2014 founding that includes a series of strategic acquisitions.

The London launch illustrates a growing market for specialist advice built on sector knowledge and professional networks rather than one‑size‑fits‑all solutions. Tweed presents the offering as informed by practitioner insight and senior‑level advisory experience; whether the new office will materially change post‑career outcomes for athletes will depend on execution, the quality of the broader support ecosystem and the take‑up of specialist planning across clubs, agents and player representatives.

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Source: Noah Wire Services