The news: U.S. Bank poached former National Football League (NFL) cornerback Steven Israel from J.P. Morgan Private Bank. As a wealth management consultant focused on professional athletes, this extends U.S. Bank’s reach in that niche sector.

Zoom out: This move coincides with an announcement earlier this month from U.S. Bank and the NFL about a new, multiyear partnership making U.S. Bank an official bank and wealth management sponsor of the league. It will also support the NFL’s player financial empowerment efforts through financial education offerings. 

Trendspotting: JPMorgan Chase is also making a push into wealth management for athletes and enlisting star athletes to help shape the strategy. The basis for that program and U.S. Bank’s is that athletes have atypical career trajectories in which they start profiting from their name and likeness in college, quickly accumulate wealth, and suddenly retire. JPMorgan also recently secured a partnership with the Olympics, which will enable JPMorgan to provide financial education to Olympic athletes. Morgan Stanley and UBS offer similar services targeted at entertainers.

Implications for banks and wealth managers: Wealth managers must choose between being generalists who work with nearly any client—from mass-affluent to ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW)—or vertical specialists who cater to clients with extremely specific, unique needs. UHNW firms take the latter approach. With a high-profile sponsorship agreement, diversified banks and wealth managers can reach a very specific retail banking and investment customer base and an extremely sparse high-end segment. The competitive edge in wealth management is relationships, which are whittled away by services that fail to differentiate themselves. Vertical advice is the strategic way out.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.