When defensive back Alan Ball started his nine-year NFL career with the Cowboys in 2007, he was better equipped than most young athletes to manage his finances. His parents had instilled in him the need to save. His mother, Cheryl, was an accountant at Ameritech Financial and belonged to an investment club.
Ball was careful choosing a financial adviser, ultimately working with Courtney Altemus, a private wealth management director at Lehman Brothers and then Barclays. Ball said he appreciated that Altemus “took her time and really cared about me as a person and my goals, as opposed to just what my money could do for her and myself.