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Athletes' Wealth Playbook cover
FLAGSHIP REFERENCE GUIDE · THE FAMILY OFFICE AT NINETEEN

Athletes' Wealth Playbook

By Philip A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA · Baratelli Institute · Edition 1

THE FOUNDING THESIS

"An athlete is essentially a Family Office in their late teens and early twenties now."

NIL changed the math. A whole generation of college athletes who will never see a professional locker room are now graduating with six- and seven-figure earnings, a brand, an LLC, a Schedule C, multi-state tax exposure, and a need to build the next thirty years on top of it. The agent vocabulary, the tax vocabulary, the investment vocabulary, the entity-structure vocabulary — most of these athletes (and most of the people in their corner) are seeing it for the first time. The AWP is the family-office playbook applied to that audience: career-window economics, NIL deal structure, the Schedule C vs Schedule E routing decision, reasonable comp for an S-corp NIL business, agent and advisor selection, and the post-career business or investment that becomes the second act. Five editions in one license: Pro · College/NIL · High-School · Coach-Parent · Veteran.

5editions, one license
2live calculators
(Wealth Trajectory + NIL)
3compliance reviews
(IRS · SEC · NCAA)
$249Buy on Gumroad → ★ Read a free chapter → See all Athlete tools → ↓ Preview the inside pages
★ FREE PREVIEW PDF · 19 PAGES
Athlete's Wealth Playbook Free Preview — Reading Your Professional Contract
Cover, full table of contents, Reading Map by Role (high-school recruit, college NIL, draftee, veteran, post-career, parent/agent), and the complete Chapter 10 — Reading Your Professional Contract. Guarantee math, draft-position-to-financial-impact, the NBA rookie scale, NIL compensation by position, and the medical-workup window that decides where on the draft board you land. No email required.
Download PDF →
★ FREE COMPANION REFERENCE · 110 PAGES
Special Needs Family Financial Planning — for the athlete becoming a parent
A meaningful share of athletes become parents inside the career window — and a meaningful share of those families end up navigating special-needs planning. The 110-page free reference covers SNT architecture, ABLE-account mechanics, the SSI / Medicaid rules that compress around the $2,000 cliff, second-to-die ILIT funding, and the lifecycle plan that runs from birth through parental death. Free, no email gate. Ships with four interactive calculators.
Open the reference →
FOR THE BOOSTER WHO FUNDS THE COLLECTIVE

If you write the checks that fund a college NIL collective, your athletes are reading this guide. The rest of the library is what you'll need.

College-athletics donors are wealthy founders, family-office principals, sitting CFOs, and PE professionals. The Athletes' Wealth Playbook is what your athletes need. The eight other guides below are what you need — to structure the collective, fund the gift, plan the estate, and keep the family business in the family long enough for your grandchildren to root for the same school.

"Being the richest man in the graveyard isn't the goal. Helping your children and grandchildren while you're alive to see it — that is."

FAMILY OFFICE

The Family Office Guide

The collective is one entity in your charitable, recreational, and legacy stack. The FO Guide is how to operate the rest of it.
PRIVATE EQUITY

The PE Guide

Where the wealth that funds the gift came from. And how to underwrite the next fund commitment intelligently.
ESTATE PLANNING

Estate Planning Decoded

The donor-advised fund, foundation, GRAT, and dynasty trust that route the booster gift through the right vehicle.
TRUST ADMIN

Trust Administration

For the family trust that holds the operating-business stake whose distributions fund the school.
LIQUIDITY EVENT

Liquidity Event Playbook

How the founder who's now a booster got there — and the QSBS, escrow, and rep-and-warranty mechanics of the next exit.
BUSINESS BUYER

Business Buyer's Guide

For the booster who wants to buy the second-career business their alma mater's senior is about to need.
CFO & CONTROLLER

The CFO Guide

For the CFO running the family's operating company that funds it all. And, increasingly, for the CFO of the collective itself.
TREASURE ASSETS

Treasure Assets

The classic Corvette. The bourbon collection. The vintage watch. What the collector-athlete will buy with the first big check, and what their booster has been collecting for thirty years.

All eight available individually at $249 each (AWP Pro) — or as part of the Practitioner subscription ($649/yr Founding tier) which includes every guide always-current, the Brief paid layer, and quarterly office hours. The booster who funds an NIL collective and the family that supports them is the entire reason the rest of this library exists.

Free live tools derived from this guide

Three free interactive calculators run the AWP math on the athlete's actual numbers — career-window, NIL routing, and the rookie-mistake check. No purchase required.

AWP Wealth Trajectory NIL Commitment Calculator NIL Athlete Rookie Car Warning

See all Athlete tools in the full catalog →

Money Basics for Athletes — From the Money Reality Library

Pro athletes face the same financial fundamentals every adult does — taxes, savings, housing, retirement. The Money Reality library was built for that. The tools below are the most relevant for athletes managing first contracts, NIL income, and the families supporting them.

W-2 Federal + State Tax Estimator Side Hustle / 1099 Tax Estimator (NIL) Roth as a Tax-Free Lottery Compound Interest, Visualized Emergency Fund Builder Retirement Readiness Score Cost-of-Living Comparator Mortgage Payoff Calculator

Plus first-paycheck walkdown, 401(k) match maximizer, first-apartment budget, credit-card-trap, student-loan amortization, W-4 withholding, quarterly estimated tax, closing-costs, hidden balance sheet, and job-offer comparator — 18 Money Reality tools in total cross-mapped to the athlete audience.

See all Money Reality tools that apply to athletes →

One paid edition. Four free companions.

The Playbook ships as five editions reflecting the five life-stages of an athlete's relationship to money — but the offer is simple. The Pro Edition is the one paid book ($249); it's the full reference. The other four editions — College/NIL, High-School, Coach & Parent, and Veteran — are free for everyone, forever. They're focused 30–50 page derivatives of the Pro Edition, reframed for the audience the title names. Hand the College edition to the freshman who just signed an Adidas deal; hand the Coach & Parent edition to the dad who's becoming the family CFO. Cost: zero.

★ Download the four free editions immediately. Direct PDF links on each card below. Or use the email-capture form under the cards to get all four in your inbox plus a heads-up when the Pro Edition ships at launch pricing.

EDITION I · PAID

Pro Edition

The full reference. Career-window economics, NIL deal structure, post-career business and investment, agent & advisor selection.

$249 PRO EDITION

Ships with launch — join the waitlist

EDITION II · FREE

College / NIL Edition

Schedule C vs E routing for NIL income, reasonable comp for the S-corp, NCAA compliance, education-trust structures, and the math of finishing a degree even when the bag drops first.

↓ Download free PDF

EDITION III · FREE

High-School Edition

For the family of the recruit who's about to sign. The agent decision, the brand decision, the school decision, and how each one cascades into the next ten years of finances.

↓ Download free PDF

EDITION IV · FREE

Coach & Parent Edition

The boundaries of the coach-as-advisor role. What a head coach should and shouldn't say about money. The parent who becomes the family's CFO — and how to do that role without breaking the family.

↓ Download free PDF

EDITION V · FREE

Veteran & Second-Contract Edition

The 27-year-old running back, the 32-year-old MLB veteran, the 35-year-old WNBA player. The pivot from peak earning to the second act — second business, second contract, second career, second investment portfolio.

↓ Download free PDF

SEND ME ALL FOUR FREE EDITIONS

All four free editions in your inbox + a heads-up when the Pro Edition ships.

Drop your email and we'll send all four PDFs — College/NIL, High-School, Coach & Parent, Veteran — immediately. You'll also be on the launch list for the Pro Edition (launch pricing locks the moment you're on the list). No charge today. No spam.

Or just download the four directly above. The email is optional — we send the same PDFs either way.

Who this guide is for

The Playbook is written for the athletes themselves and the small circle of practitioners around them. The persona-routing table tells you where to start.

You are…Start with these chapters
Pro athlete inside the career windowCh 1-3 Career-Window Economics · Ch 6 Personal Finance Foundations · Ch 9-10 Investment Policy · Ch 14 Second Act & Post-Career Business · Apx D Worked Examples
College athlete with active NIL dealsCollege/NIL Edition front-to-back · Ch 4 Schedule C vs E Routing · Ch 5 Reasonable Comp for the S-Corp · Ch 7 NCAA Compliance · Apx E NIL Deal Structures
High-school recruit and familyHS Edition front-to-back · Ch 1 Career-Window Reality · Ch 12 Agent Selection · Ch 13 Advisor Selection · Apx F The First Big Decision
Coach or parent with influence over money decisionsCoach & Parent Edition front-to-back · Ch 11 The Boundaries of Advice · Ch 13 Advisor Selection · Apx C Mental-Health Resources
Agent / advisor / RIA / CPA serving athlete clientsAll editions · Ch 4 Schedule C vs E · Ch 5 Reasonable Comp · Ch 9-10 IPS Construction · Apx B Compliance Addenda
Veteran / second-contract / overseas playerVeteran Edition front-to-back · WNBA & Overseas section · Ch 14 The Second Act · Ch 15 Where the Wealth Goes Next
Booster funding an NIL collectiveRead the booster section above. Then: Family Office Guide · Estate Planning Decoded · Trust Administration · the rest of the library.

Table of contents

15 chapters across 5 parts, plus 6 appendices including the worked-example walk-throughs, NIL deal-structure samples, NCAA compliance addendum, mental-health resource directory, glossary, and index. Page counts are approximate.

PART I · The Economic Reality
1The Career Window — Why 3-15 Years Decides 50p1
2The Bankruptcy Numbers (and Why MLB Beats the NFL 3-to-1)p11
3Income Volatility, Tax Geography, & the Domicile Decisionp21
PART II · NIL Money & the College Edition
4Schedule C vs Schedule E — The Routing Decision That Mattersp33
5Reasonable Compensation for the S-Corp NIL Businessp43
6Personal Finance Foundations (the boring chapter that wins)p53
7NCAA Compliance & the Trump Executive Order Updatep63
PART III · Contract Mechanics
8Signing Bonus, State Residence Election, & the Move-In Windowp73
9