The new firm, New Incentive Financial Consultants, is an introducer of Finsbury Financial.
"I know from first-hand experience that when you are outside the elite of the highest-paid Premiership players, you don’t necessarily have access to the best financial advice," Ward said in an interview with IFAonline.
"This dearth of sound financial advice is often the undoing of players once they retire, as of course the average career of a footballer is relatively short and tends to be front-loaded in terms of the sums they can command for their talent.
"Many football players earn decent money, but it is not enough that they can afford not to worry about money when they retire," Ward was quoted as having said.
"They are like many other people in different occupations. They work hard and they have to make that money stretch a long way. I have seen and heard of many players being given entirely inappropriate advice," Ward said.
