The host of the Athletes’ Wealth Playbook video series — bringing the practitioner playbook to athletes, parents, and coaches.
Brooke Thompson is an AI-generated host. She is a fictional persona created by the Baratelli Institute to deliver the Athletes’ Wealth Playbook to a video-first audience. All content is authored by Phil A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA — thirty-five years as a public-company CFO, family-office CFO, and practitioner reference-library author.
Brooke is 26. Former Division I soccer player at Pacific Coast University (a fictional school chosen specifically so she makes no claims about a real institution). She watched teammates and friends navigate NIL deals and early pro contracts without a real playbook. That’s the framing she brings to the AWP video series. She hosts. She does not endorse. Phil writes; Brooke brings it to you.
The Athletes’ Wealth Playbook is a 200-page practitioner reference across five editions — Pro, College/NIL, High School, Coach-Parent, Veteran. It is the most thorough, neutral, free reference on athlete personal finance in the market today.
And the audience it’s built for — a 19-year-old NIL collegian, a single mother of a D1 prospect, a coach at a mid-major school, a former pro five years past the league — mostly discovers content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and LinkedIn. They are video-first readers. A 200-page PDF is not how they meet new ideas.
“Phil writes the book. Brooke brings it to the audience that wouldn’t otherwise hear it. The library is locked. The distribution is open. This is distribution.”
— AWP Video Channel Decision Memo, v3Each video introduces one chapter or one practitioner framework from one edition of the AWP. The video’s job is to put the question in front of the right viewer at the right life stage; the AWP guide does the deep work for the viewer who follows the link.
The launch slate — one per week, across the five AWP editions.
78% of NFL players are bankrupt within two years of retirement. NBA: 60%. MLB: half within five years. Not bad luck. Not lavish spending. Nobody taught them what to do with the money when it came in.
For: every viewer
Three things Phil flags in the College Edition that the typical accountant doesn’t tell an NIL athlete: SE income mechanics, the S-corp election threshold, and the Solo 401(k) shelter for under-21 athletes.
For: NIL collegians + parents
The three things that separate the 5% of pro athletes who keep their wealth from the 95% who don’t: identity separation, non-family trustees, and converting peak earnings into income-producing assets rather than lifestyle.
For: pro & post-career athletes
If you’re the parent of an athlete — D1 prospect, NIL collegian, or pro — the most valuable thing you can do for your kid in the next twelve months has nothing to do with their sport. The Coach & Parent Edition teaches the questions that stop bad deals before they start.
For: parents of athletes
The second-contract decision is the most important financial decision of your career — the structure around it, not the contract itself. Five things from the Veteran Edition that determine whether the wealth lasts thirty years or three.
For: pro athletes 30+
The Institute decided early that an AI persona only works if disclosure is loud, persistent, and on every surface. AI hosts that fail are the ones that hide it; the ones that work are the ones that lead with it. Four rules govern every Brooke Thompson video:
Brooke’s videos are the way in. The Athletes’ Wealth Playbook is the deep work. The High School and Coach & Parent editions are completely free. The full library covers the full career arc from a 16-year-old D1 prospect to a 60-year-old retiree from professional sport.
Phil spent thirty-five years in CFO and family-office seats — corporate controller and treasurer of a Fortune-100 subsidiary at age 32, Family Office CFO running a multi-asset balance sheet, public-company CFO walking quarterly close and SEC reporting. The AWP is built from that practitioner experience applied to a population that, until recently, didn’t have access to it.
The athlete-as-family-office insight is the founding observation of the AWP: an athlete is structurally a Family Office in their late teens and early twenties now. Multiple revenue streams, a small advisor pack forming around them, decades-long horizon, complex tax exposure across multiple states. The vocabulary is new to the athlete and their family. The discipline is not new to the practitioner reference library.
Read the founder story → Open the AWP guide → Berkshire Read →