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- Morgan Stanley’s Octavius “Ted” Reid struggled financially at the start of his career but turned sports into his niche after a friend who was a professional athlete fell into dire straits. That helped him build a career managing money for star athletes and entertainers.
- Reid was never a sports fan growing up, but he discovered a passion for teaching sports stars about finance and helping them with their money. He has now worked with athletes and entertainers for 33 years.
- Reid’s own struggles, and his friends’ early struggles, have helped him relate to people who sometimes see their careers go off course. He told Business Insider it’s why he stressed the importance of planning for worst-case scenarios.
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When Octavius “Ted” Reid’s game plan was destroyed, he had to make a new one. His inspiration came from a surprising place.
Reid was just beginning his career at Morgan Stanley when the stock market crashed in October 1987. He was forced to take extra jobs waiting tables and unloading packages to cover his mortgage payments.
That was the unlikely start of a career that’s seen him become a trusted adviser to more than 100 stars and professionals in sports and music as the head of his own group within the company’s sports and entertainment unit.
Reid started to turn things around when he extended a helping hand to his friend Ron Moten. Moten, who had just been drafted by the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, suffered a devastating injury before playing in a regular-season game. According to Reid, Moten’s financial adviser mismanaged his money, leaving him homeless.
“For the next 2 1/2 years, he ended sleeping on my couch,” Reid told Business Insider. “We would both come home every day, beat up from our other jobs, and looking at each other and saying, ‘This wasn’t the game plan.'”
The two began teaching each other about their respective industries, looking for a way out of their situation.
“He started inviting some of his teammates over the house,” said Reid, who is now a wealth adviser at Morgan Stanley’s sports and entertainment division. “I started teaching them how to manage their money and a number of them became clients.”
“One day,” he added, “I realized I had a niche.”
A few years after that, some of Moten’s former Eagles teammates went to the Arizona Cardinals following a coaching change. His connections in football led to baseball, and he was on his way.
Some two years after Moten moved out, Reid was working exclusively for athletes, taking him into a niche that would later become very popular. From there he branched out into entertainment lawyers and musicians, building up a network in the industry.
Reid says he’s never been much of a sports fan, so the idea of being close to the action on the field didn’t draw him in. He still draws meaning from his personal connection with Moten, knowing that athletes’ sudden success doesn’t always last.
“I saw the struggles he went through at the end of his career,” Reid said. “I’ve also been pretty much rock bottom myself.”
Moten turned his life around as well: After his football plans ended, he went back to college and started a career in law enforcement. This year he retired as chief of detectives for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Even after three decades, his says his early experiences have given him an understanding of the excitement a young athlete or entertainer might feel — and knowledge of the consequences if they don’t plan adequately for their future.
“Wall Street, when I got hired, we lived the same mentality,” he said, adding: “We all thought we were going to be 22-year-old millionaires. You’ve got to make the right decisions now.”
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