Financial Guidance Built for College Coaches

Who am I?

I'm Jake Portock, a financial advisor with Rock Bridge Financial Advisors, and I help college coaches stay financially stable in an unpredictable profession. Before I worked in financial services, I spent five years coaching in college athletics. Now I work only with college coaches, helping them make confident financial decisions in a profession where stability is never guaranteed.

I hold the SE-AWMA® designation, which focuses on wealth management issues common in sports and entertainment. I use that training through the lens of college coaching, where career moves, compensation changes, benefits decisions, and long-term planning can get complicated quickly.

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Why Do I Work Only With College Coaches?

In 2015, I moved to Missouri for a graduate assistant position coaching Track and Field and Cross Country. After my two years as a GA, I was fortunate enough to be hired as a full-time assistant and recruiting coordinator. In 2020, I left coaching and went into financial services. As I learned more about how financial planning and retirement planning worked, I realized that college coaches need an advisor that actually understands their world, because what their life and profession looks like is totally unique compared to people in other careers.

What Types of Problems do College Coaches Face?

Career volatility

A changing landscape is part of the profession. Collegiate coaching is one of the few professions where you can be expected to pack up and move every few years as a part of normal career progression, which has to be accounted for in any financial plan.

Benefits and compensation

You have enough to worry about when it comes to developing your program, you shouldn't need to stay on top of changing benefits and compensation structures.

Long-term planning

Coaching forces you to stay in the present, day-to-day actions of your life, which makes it hard to zoom out and take in the big picture, especially when your day-to-day can shift so drastically underneath your feet.

Wealth Management

A big contract and the big paycheck that comes with it can also lead to big problems, that require a specialized approach that takes into account your unique needs as a coach.

What do I believe?

A good financial plan should account for the volatility of a coach's life
Good advice should make decisions clearer, not more complicated
Risk means different things to different people
College coaches are better served by someone who understands the profession, not just the math
The best plan is one that someone can understand, trust, and stick with
A good investment is not just one that makes you money, but one that you understand and are proud to own
Tactics and tools are less important than relationships and mutual understanding

See How I Help Coaches

More about me

I'm originally from the Philadelphia area (Go Birds 🦅). I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in 2015, and then moved to Missouri to be a graduate assistant at Central Methodist University while pursuing my Master's Degree.

I now live in Columbia, MO with my wife, Paige, and our two cats, Jasper and Maude. When I'm not helping college coaches, I enjoy running, reading, and yoga.

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If you're a college coach looking for an advisor who understands your profession, start here

We’ll talk through your situation, the decisions in front of you, and whether working together would actually make sense.