Why athlete planning is its own discipline
The core problem is compression. Most careers pay a steady salary for thirty or forty years. An athlete's career pays a large amount for a short stretch and then stops. The financial mistakes that a salaried professional can recover from over a decade — a bad real estate deal, an under-funded retirement account, a misunderstood tax bill — become permanent for someone whose peak earnings end at thirty-two.
The advisory industry around athletes is built on commissions and product sales. The advisor who gets the first meeting after the signing bonus usually shows up with an annuity, a permanent life insurance policy, and a pitch for a real estate syndication. Those products pay the advisor. Whether they serve the athlete depends on math that rarely gets shown.
We work differently. We charge a planning fee, we put the entire picture on one page, and we have no financial relationship with anyone who is trying to sell you anything.
Athletes sit alongside the other audiences we serve — see the broader picture of the people and households we sit down with most often.
The questions athletes actually bring us
The questions are specific to the career shape, and they arrive faster than most athletes expect.
- How much of this contract do I actually keep after taxes, agent fees, and the obligations I have already signed?
- I play in six different states — what does my tax picture look like, and is anyone tracking it?
- How do I protect this income so that a career-ending injury next season does not become a financial emergency?
- What should I be doing now so that when the career ends, the household does not fall off a cliff?
- People keep asking me to invest in their projects — how do I evaluate what is real and what is not?
Where most advice gets athletes wrong
The first mistake is treating a signing bonus like permanent income. It is not. It is a lump that has to last, and the lifestyle decisions made in the first sixty days often set the trajectory for the next twenty years.
The second mistake is ignoring multi-state taxes. An athlete who plays road games in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut may owe income tax in each state on the portion of income earned there. The compliance work is real and the penalties for getting it wrong are not small.
The third mistake is the circle of trust. Many athletes rely on family members, former teammates, or friends-of-agents for financial guidance. The intentions are usually good. The expertise is usually not. A fee-only fiduciary with no ties to the athlete's social circle is the structural fix for this problem.
The multi-state tax problem is one we take seriously. Athletes earning income across several jurisdictions need a year-round approach to treating the tax return as a byproduct of a real tax conversation rather than a once-a-year surprise.
The work we do for athletes
We start with what you actually keep. After taxes, agent fees, union dues, and training costs, the net number is always smaller than the headline. We map that number against the household's real spending and build forward from there.
Cash flow is the first conversation because it shapes everything else. Most athletes have irregular income — signing bonuses, performance incentives, off-season gaps. We structure the year so the household runs on a steady draw while the surplus goes where it compounds.
The retirement question for athletes is different than for most people. Traditional retirement accounts still matter, but the bigger question is what the post-career income looks like. We model the transition — a second career, a business, a coaching role — as a financial event and plan the bridge.
The portfolio we build is diversified and low-cost — the opposite of the concentrated bets and private deals that agents and promoters tend to bring. Our approach to building a portfolio that survives a bad year without drama is designed for exactly this situation.
Disability is the risk most athletes under-price because nobody wants to talk about a career-ending injury. We have strong opinions about why long-term disability coverage is the policy most high-earners get wrong.
The post-career transition is a retirement question disguised as a career question. Our notes on planning retirement as a sequence problem rather than a savings target explain how we think about the bridge.
When the career earnings are large enough to create a real estate, the conversation shifts to the estate work that most households postpone and then run out of time on.
What working with us looks like
First meeting — on your schedule
We meet at our Paramus office, at your home, or wherever the calendar allows. Bring your contracts, your last two tax returns, and whatever account statements you can gather. We ask what the money is for, what the career timeline looks like, and where the gaps are. By the end of the hour you know whether we can help.
Second meeting — the written plan
We come back with a written plan that covers net income, cash flow structure, tax exposure, insurance needs, and the post-career bridge. The plan is yours to keep whether or not you decide to work with us going forward.
A note on fit
When this might not be right for you
We are not the right fit for every athlete. Some situations where we would say so up front:
- Anyone looking for an advisor who will also act as a business manager, agent, or marketing representative. We do financial planning. We do not do deals.
- Anyone who wants guaranteed returns or access to exclusive investment opportunities. We build diversified, low-cost portfolios and we tell you the truth about expected returns.
- Anyone who needs the advisor to say yes to every spending decision. We will tell you what the math says, even when the math is uncomfortable.
If any of that describes where you are, we would rather say so on the first call than disappoint you on the third.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a certain contract size to work with a fee-only financial advisor?
No. We work with athletes at every level — from semi-professional to major-league contracts. There is no minimum. The planning fee depends on the complexity of your situation, and we publish it in writing before you agree to anything.
How is financial planning for athletes different from regular planning?
The primary difference is the compressed earning window. Most athletes earn the bulk of their lifetime income in ten to fifteen years, which means every major financial decision — taxes, savings rate, spending, insurance — has to be right the first time. There is less room to recover from a mistake at forty than there is for someone who will earn a salary until sixty-five.
Do you handle multi-state tax filings for athletes?
We do not file taxes, but we work alongside your CPA to map the multi-state exposure and make sure nothing falls between the chairs. If you do not have a CPA experienced with athlete returns, we will introduce you to one we trust.
How do you protect against bad investment pitches?
We do not sell investments and we accept no referral fees. When someone brings a deal to the table, we evaluate the math and tell you what we see. Most of the time what we see is a pitch that pays the promoter and not the athlete. Our job is to say that out loud.
What happens to the plan when the playing career ends?
The plan is designed from the start to survive the transition. We model the post-career income — a second career, a business, coaching, broadcasting — and build the financial bridge so the household does not depend on the last contract check. The transition is a planned event, not an emergency.
Do you work with agents and sports attorneys?
We coordinate with your existing team — agent, attorney, CPA — but we are independent of all of them. We are not paid by your agent and we have no financial relationship with anyone who is trying to sell you anything. That independence is the point.
Where do you meet with athlete clients?
Most first meetings happen at our Paramus office or at the athlete's home. We also do video calls when the schedule is tight, especially during the season. In-person service is the default, not the exception.