This text initially appeared on Enterprise Insider.
The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Financial institution this spring shone a highlight on federal deposit insurance coverage, which solely extends to $250,000 of a buyer’s cash at a single financial institution. When Giannis Antetokounmpo first realized of the restrict, he opened half a dozen financial institution accounts to guard his fortune.
The basketball star arrived within the US a decade in the past at age 18, and went to the financial institution to open an account, he instructed Bloomberg earlier this yr. “I had no cash rising up, so I requested them, ‘Is my cash secure?'” he recalled. After discovering out in regards to the $250,000 cap, Antetokounmpo promptly opened accounts at “5, six, seven” banks.
Marc Lasry, the billionaire co-owner of Antetokounmpo’s workforce, the Milwaukee Bucks, shared his response to studying of Antetokounmpo’s quite a few financial institution accounts on the Bloomberg Wealth Summit in 2022.
“I am like, ‘Giannis, you’ll be able to’t be having accounts at 50 completely different banks,” Lasry mentioned. “Let me inform you one thing, if JPMorgan goes below, your little dinky banks are going to go below too. Let me clarify what you can purchase, you can purchase US Treasuries, you can purchase this…'”
Lasry, a distressed-debt investor, famous that Antetokounmpo’s considerations about safeguarding his money probably stemmed from his childhood in Greece. The Mediterranean nation suffered a sovereign-debt disaster within the mid-2010s that stoked fears amongst residents that their financial institution deposits might be seized or misplaced.
In recent times, Antetokounmpo has acted on the recommendation of Lasry and different trusted advisors. “There’s manner smarter methods to do it, maintain your cash secure,” the ability ahead instructed Bloomberg, including that he is strategically expanded his portfolio because the pandemic.
Antetokounmpo has loads of cash to guard and deploy. He netted an estimated $81 million in earnings on and off the court docket in 2022, in response to Forbes. The journal ranked him tenth on its checklist of the world’s highest-paid athletes, after the likes of Lionel Messi ($130 million), LeBron James ($121 million), and Tom Brady ($84 million).
The “Greek Freak” has additionally partnered with Calamos CEO John Koudounis on an exchange-traded fund that invests based mostly on environmental, social, and governance standards.
The Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Corp. (FDIC) took management of SVB and Signature Financial institution this spring after they suffered a wave of withdrawals, and moved to forestall additional financial institution runs by insuring all deposits at each lenders.
Excessive-profile traders together with Invoice Ackman and Mark Cuban known as for the company to briefly scrap its $250,000 cap and insure all financial institution deposits to forestall any additional mass withdrawals and extra financial institution failures.
