2005, May
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Richmond, VA (May 23, 2005) - For professional athletes, the short amount of time spent off the field is often filled with family, business issues and travel. Their lives are complicated, and many turn to someone other than themselves to help them manage their lives, from routine chores such as running errands to high-dollar decisions, like home management, travel planning and car shopping.

When this happens, an athlete can lose thousands of dollars, because most often the friend, family member or advisor does not understand the athlete's complete financial picture. The individual on whom the athlete is relying to run his day-to-day finances is not talking with the athlete's professional tax advisor or financial planner.

"Any athlete can ask a friend, family member or agent to help them pay their bills or buy things. But whoever they entrust to do this should also work with the athlete's tax and financial advisors to ensure they are acting in the athlete's best financial interests," says Steven M. Piascik  CPA, MT, founder and president of PIASCIK, a CPA firm that specializes in managing the financial needs of professional athletes. "Busy athletes need someone who will bend over backwards, at any time of day or night, to get whatever that athlete wants. But they should work hand-in-hand with the athlete's financial advisors, so they can make the right decisions on how the athlete's money should best be spent."

PIASCIK offers a financial concierge program featuring an online bill payment service accessed from the firm's website. The program is designed to keep professional athletes, who are extremely busy, on a managed budget with automatic, on-time bill payment and advice on making high-dollar purchasing decisions on tangibles such as cars, jewelry and houses.

With the average playing lifetime less than five years, depending on the sport, athletes face growing demands in their careers. PIASCIK's concierge service is designed to assist athletes in significantly reducing unnecessary stress from their lives, while ensuring their finances remain as stress-free as possible.

The firm also helps clients with on-line bill payment services. "As trusted financial and tax advisors to many professional athletes, our firm is taking our level of service one step further, by protecting the financial welfare of our clients through automatic bill paying services," says PIASCIK.

PIASCIK works with the athlete to establish the bill payment program, which includes setting up a separate checking account set aside for bill payment, which receives regular, automatic deposits from the athlete's earnings. Once this is in place, PIASCIK can begin paying the athlete's bills. Through a secured website, the athlete can access account information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including checks written, deposits, and monthly and year-to-date listings of expenses.

The financial concierge program is managed on-site, by Terri Noll, Client Relations Supervisor. Working closely with her clients' tax advisors at PIASCIK, Noll understands their financial situations and can best advise them on how their money is spent.

"I'll ask a client, 'So you want to go to Singapore. Sure, you can afford that chartered jet today, but looking at your financial goals down the road, would you consider a first-class or business seat on a commercial airline instead?," says Noll. "Anyone can book their client on a chartered flight, but is that the best use of their money? The final decision is always up to the athlete as to how their money is spent; however, we like to make sure the athlete is considering the big picture. We're constantly evaluating our clients' financial situations when helping them to make lifestyle decisions. That's the value in service we offer at PIASCIK."

Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, PIASCIK also provides premier personalized financial services to private and publicly traded companies, multi-million dollar international companies and other high net worth individuals. In 2004, the firm was recognized nationally by Practical Accountant magazine with a Practice Innovation Award. It also is the recipient of the 2004 Torch Award for Marketplace Integrity by the Better Business Bureau of Central Virginia.