Jun 15, 2026 Building the Right Advisory Team for NIL Athletes

A Conversation with Allen Schreiber, Partner, TSG Wealth Management

For college athletes, NIL has changed everything. What was once a prohibited concept is now a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem — and for the athletes earning real money in it, the financial stakes couldn’t be higher. A seven-figure NIL deal sounds like a windfall, but without the right structure around it, it can become a liability.

The moment an athlete’s first revenue share or NIL check clears, they aren’t just a student anymore, they’re a small business owner. The IRS treats them as one and the question is whether their NIL financial advisor does, too.

We sat down with Allen Schreiber, Partner at TSG Wealth Management and a key member of TSG’s Sports & Entertainment team, to talk about what it actually takes to protect NIL income — and why the advisory team an athlete builds right now almost matters more than any single deal they sign.

You work with athletes at different stages of their careers. How is the NIL era changing the conversations you’re having?

Dramatically. We used to primarily engage with athletes at or after the professional level. Now we’re having substantive NIL wealth management conversations with 18, 19, and 20-year-olds who are generating six- and seven-figure income while still in college. That’s an incredible opportunity — and a serious responsibility.

The challenge is that the support system most of these athletes have around them was not built for this. Their family’s tax preparer, who has done a great job with W-2 income their whole lives, may not be equipped to handle 1099 income, self-employment tax, entity structuring, or multi-state filings. And the athlete often doesn’t know what they don’t know. That’s exactly where a dedicated NIL financial advisor makes a difference.

What is the single biggest financial mistake you see NIL athletes making?

Treating the income like an allowance instead of business revenue.

When a $500,000 check hits a 19-year-old’s account, it feels like $500,000 of spending money. It isn’t. Before lifestyle enters the picture, you have to think about taxes, structure, savings, and strategy. The athletes who get this right early are the ones who build real wealth. The ones who don’t can spend years catching up — or never catch up at all.

We see the same story repeat itself with NIL athletes earning serious money: they spend before they structure, they trust advisors who aren’t equipped for this kind of income, and they wake up owing far more than they ever anticipated. That’s a painful and avoidable situation.

What does proper NIL tax planning strategies and entity structuring look like?

Let’s say a college athlete is earning seven figures in NIL income — endorsements, revenue share, appearances, content deals. That income, if it flows to them personally as 1099 income without any structure, is going to get hit hard. Self-employment tax alone is 15.3%. On top of federal and state income tax, you could easily see 50 cents of every dollar go straight to the government.
The first thing we typically explore is entity formation — in many cases, an LLC taxed as an S-Corp. This allows the athlete to put themselves on a reasonable salary and take the remaining income as distributions, which aren’t subject to self-employment tax. For a seven-figure earner, that structure alone can save tens of thousands of dollars annually.

From there, working with their tax advisor, we maximize legitimate business deductions. Training costs, recovery, content production, travel, equipment, agent and legal fees — these are real business expenses for an athlete running a seven-figure personal brand. When run through the right entity, they generate meaningful deductions.

We also look at retirement vehicles. A Solo 401(k) allows for significant contributions at both the employee and employer level. For a 20-year-old with 45 or more years of compounding ahead, a single maxed-out contribution can be worth millions over time. And depending on the state, pass-through entity tax elections can allow state taxes to be paid at the entity level, sidestepping federal SALT deduction limitations. These NIL tax planning strategies compound — when executed together, total savings in a given year can be well over $100,000.

How does NIL income complicate the need for a coordinated advisory team?

It makes coordination even more critical than it already was.

NIL contracts can have unusual structures — revenue sharing arrangements, equity provisions, appearance fee tiers, content deliverable schedules. The legal language in these deals has real financial consequences that need to be modeled in real time. If the attorney and the NIL financial advisor aren’t communicating, you end up with decisions made in isolation that create problems downstream.

At TSG, we think of ourselves as the quarterback of the athlete’s financial team. We work closely with the athlete’s attorney, their agent, and either our partner tax team through TSG Tax Management or the client’s existing CPA. The goal is that every discipline is moving in the same direction, and the athlete has a clear, unified picture of their financial life rather than a collection of disconnected conversations.

For NIL athletes specifically, that integration needs to happen before the money arrives if at all possible. Once a deal is signed and income starts flowing, you’re already playing catch-up.

How important is education in your NIL wealth management approach?

It’s everything. An athlete who doesn’t understand their own financial structure can’t preserve it.

We spend real time making sure our NIL clients understand not just what decisions are being made, but why. What does it mean to be taxed as an S-Corp? How does a Solo 401(k) actually work? What happens to their tax exposure if they sign an endorsement deal in a different state? These aren’t abstract questions — they’re decisions athletes are going to face, and they’re better made from a position of knowledge.

We extend that education to the athlete’s family as well. The support system around a college athlete is often deeply involved in their financial decisions. When everyone around the athlete understands the plan, it’s much easier to stay disciplined — especially when the pressure to spend or give money away starts to mount.

How do you help NIL athletes manage financial pressure from family and friends?

It shows up immediately. When a college athlete starts generating real NIL income, they become the financial anchor for a lot of people around them very quickly. Friends, family members, people from the community — everyone has a business idea, an investment opportunity, or a need that suddenly feels like the athlete’s responsibility.

One of the most important things we help our NIL clients establish early is a financial boundary structure. We work with them to set giving parameters — designating a specific portion of annual income for family support — so that requests don’t trigger impulsive decisions. We also help them see the actual cost of saying yes to everything, because that math is sobering.

We aren’t telling athletes not to be generous. Generosity is part of who they are, and that’s admirable. We’re helping them channel it in a way that’s sustainable — so their yes today doesn’t become a financial crisis five years from now.

NIL earning windows can be short. How does that shape your wealth planning strategy?

It changes everything about the urgency and discipline required.

A college athlete might have two or three years of significant NIL income. That window is finite. If they spend it without structure, they lose it. If they deploy it strategically — into the right tax vehicles, the right investment accounts, the right long-term wealth planning structures — that compressed window can fund the next 40 or 50 years.

This is why we emphasize starting early and acting quickly. A Roth IRA contribution for a 20-year-old athlete isn’t just $7,500 in an account — it’s decades of tax-free compounding on money that might otherwise have gone to taxes. The leverage is extraordinary at that age.

We also prepare athletes for what comes after NIL — whether that’s a professional career, entrepreneurship, media, or philanthropy. The estate planning strategies and financial habits they put in place now will determine how much flexibility and independence they have at every stage that follows.

What should an NIL athlete look for when choosing a financial advisor?

Three things: experience, transparency, and fit.

Experience matters because NIL athletes face challenges that most advisors have never seen — 1099 income, multi-state tax exposure, brand-driven revenue streams, short earning windows, and intense personal financial pressure. You need a NIL financial advisor who has navigated this landscape before, not one learning on the job.

Transparency is non-negotiable. You should know exactly how your advisor is compensated and what their investment planning strategy is. And fit is about trust and communication. If you don’t feel comfortable picking up the phone at any time, it’s not the right relationship.

At TSG, we see ourselves as part of the athlete’s inner circle. We don’t just manage assets — we manage risk, coordinate across disciplines, educate, and help clients build a sustainable future. That’s what NIL wealth management looks like when it’s done right.

What is your message to an NIL athlete just starting to generate serious income?

You’re not a college kid with a side hustle. You’re the CEO of a seven-figure personal brand. Build your team accordingly.

That means a NIL financial advisor who understands your income, not just general wealth planning. It means an attorney who has read deals like yours before. It means a tax professional who knows how to structure 1099 income, not just file a return. And it means all of those people talking to each other on your behalf, with you understanding every major decision that gets made.

At TSG, we built our Sports & Entertainment team around exactly this kind of coordination. The athletes who build the right structure early are the ones who look back on their NIL years as the foundation of lasting wealth — not as money they wish they had back.

Ready to Build the Right NIL Advisory Team?

For NIL athletes and their families looking for a coordinated approach to protecting and growing NIL income, the TSG Sports & Entertainment practice was built for exactly this moment. With tax planning strategies through TSG Tax Management and a team that has worked with athletes across every level of the NIL landscape, TSG brings the structure, education, and integration that serious NIL income demands.

Learn more and connect with the team at tsgwm.com/sports.

TSG Tax Management is not affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN), Member SIPC. TSG Wealth Management is a separate entity from WFAFN.