What would you with $20K?

[Ed Miller]

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Good move.

Some CFP (maybe your office) is going to make a pretty penny advising the best of the 2+2 young guns. The ideal CFP will be a poker player and capable of assuming a mentoring role with a style customized for these great young players.

It's actually shocking to me that CFPs are not all over this.

If I was 21 and interested in managing portfolios, I'd just go and take the classes and get the CFP and then market my services to the many great young players here.

Several of them are going to retire millionaires by 35 provided they get the proper advisors on their team early in the poker career. Certainly this is a win-win for all involved.

I know of no CFP that caters to poker players. WHAT A NICHE.

Most CFPs struggle explaining advanced financial concepts to clients. Winning players by default get anything related to risk and reward-- immediately.

Marketing CFP services to winning young poker players. What a killer business model for the right CFP firm. Some of these kids will have liquid net worth well over 500K by the time they are 27, 28, 29. And they are going to live for another 30, 35, 40, 50 years.

What an opportunity. It's HUGE-- and wide open.

http://www.cfp-board.org/

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In the last few months, I've considered doing exactly this. Actually, my plan was to team up with a CFP rather than to become one.

I don't know, though... I don't think it's as instantly lucrative a niche as you are suggesting. That's precisely because of how smart successful poker players are.

The financial industry supports itself on the ignorance of its customers. While a lot of these 18-25 year olds are ignorant now, many won't be two years from now. They'll be smart... and when they have millions, they will know what to do with it... and that won't be paying me $20k a year to put it in index funds for them.

Sports millionaires... that's a great niche. But poker players? The money isn't as good in poker, and they are too savvy to sign on for the long haul. They need short term direction, not long term management.

Actually, the niche that could be somewhat lucrative is the windfall niche. The lottery winner niche. The inheritance niche. The big tournament winner niche. The "average Joes" that happen to win big tournaments and don't know what to do with the cash. But there are plenty of people who already cater to that niche. Which is not to say that a player known in poker circles who also caters to that niche wouldn't have a "niche within a niche." But it would be connection-based, not expertise-based.

I dunno.. I thought it was a great idea too when I first thought of it. But then I said, "How many of these guys are sticking around for the long haul?" and I decided that most, ultimately, will outgrow the CFP service.