Jon Hayes, former president and founder of Constellation Sports Council, realized one day he never had teammates working in his same same niche because he was always the “specialist” at the firm when it came to advising high-net-worth athletes.
Last year, he decided it was time to look for a place with a bench of advisors who understood and could even support his practice.
“It’s funny, I’ve had a few different vintages in my career on the sports side, and it never really dawned on me that the places that I was at did not have a sports specialty because I was that sports specialty,” he said.
In early April, after considering a few different firms, Hayes and partner Tim Hightower joined Cleveland-based MAI Capital Management in its Cincinnati office. The pair is now poised to bring over $280 million in client assets and join a group with decades of history in advising athletes.
The fit also worked in the other direction. Ed Kuresman, regional president and market leader at MAI Capital Management, said he had long admired Constellation Sports Council’s work and was glad to hear that Hayes and Hightower were looking for a new home.
“I was an admirer from afar in terms of the business he was running,” Kuresman said. “In my mind I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat someday (to work with them).’”
A former college athlete, Hayes joined Reinhart Partners out of Mequon, Wis., as the director of pro sports in 2008, with Reinhart later changing its name to Pegasus Partners. He started Constellation Sports Council in 2021 with Hightower, with the two of them running that practice as part of the larger Constellation Wealth Advisors, a Cincinnati-based RIA.
Hayes is now a senior wealth advisor and managing director with MAI Capital, and Hightower is a wealth specialist and senior associate. They work with athletes, including former NBA three-point specialist Ray Allen, two-time NBA champion David West and MLB Hall of Famer Barry Larkin.
MAI Capital advises 16 Hall of Fame athletes, executives and clients across 13 professional sports leagues.
Hayes said there are nuances to providing financial advice to athletes, such as how to advise them on their budget and planning when they make the bulk of their income between the ages of 20 and 28.
“It’s a very different career arc and a very different pay cycle to manage,” he said.
Hayes has also been considering his own time on the playing field. He said an NBA player and his fiancé, who are clients, recently asked him, “What would we ever do if something happened to you?”
“That encapsulated one of the reasons we went to MAI,” Hayes said.
Kuresman and Hayes also spoke to what they see as a burgeoning market for advising professional athletes. They noted potential team expansion in the U.S. with cities like Las Vegas and Nashville, international growth under consideration in cities like Mexico City, and the rise of gambling-related marketing opportunities and revenue streams.
“That cake is getting baked with a lot of ingredients that would indicate this is an industry that will continue on an upward curve,” Hayes said.
MAI Capital oversees over $30 billion in client assets across 24 offices. It has been steadily acquiring RIA’s across different practice types, including a $1.2 billion fee-only RIA Halpern Financial in October 2024, its eighth acquisition of the year.
Republic Capital Group advised Constellation Wealth on the transaction in which Hayes and Hightower left.