Sales & Marketing | 02.04.26

Financial Advisors Get in the Game: Working With Student-Athletes Is a Win-Win

by: Heather Broderick; Ladan Massir

When it comes to succeeding on the court or the field, elite student-athletes rarely go it alone — they can turn to their coaches, athletic trainers and sports psychologists for help. But an increasing number of college athletes now need another type of support: financial advice.

Since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2021, college athletes have been allowed to earn money from name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with businesses. More recently, another legal ruling allowed universities to pay their student-athletes directly.

These new earning opportunities can be transformative for students, but only if they have the right guidance to help them navigate their newfound wealth. For many financial advisors, developing a specialty in working with such talented young people can prove rewarding in multiple ways.

The Gaps That Financial Advisors and Institutions Can Fill

Generally speaking, young people are less savvy when it comes to investing and other financial subjects. Meanwhile, reports over the years have raised concerns that high-earning professional athletes are vulnerable to bankruptcy after their playing days are over. The risks facing both young people and athletes underscores the importance of financial guidance for college athletes, and the valuable role financial advisors can play.

Advisors stepping up to the challenge include Caroline Piehl. Piehl was once a decorated college athlete herself — she’s a four-time NCAA National Champion with the University of California-Berkeley swim team — believes student-athletes should feel empowered to make their own financial decisions.

Piehl helps them achieve just that by emphasizing key aspects of financial literacy, including budgeting and tax planning for self-employed individuals. (Student-athletes are considered independent contractors, making it especially important for them to receive tax planning guidance.) She also encourages them to take the discipline they’ve developed as athletes and leverage it for their financial well-being. “By being consistent, driven and intentional, they can become the CEO of their own finances.”

Another component of Piehl’s work is advising the parents of student-athletes, especially the parents of high school athletes being recruited by colleges. Parents can set up basic best practices for their children before they set foot inside a campus stadium, and Piehl is there to help.

For institutions, the emergence of NIL represents more than a moment-in-time opportunity. It is an early entry point into a new generation of clients navigating income, taxes and financial decisions earlier than ever before. When wealth management advisors engage student-athletes thoughtfully and compliantly, starting with education and foundational guidance, they are not just helping manage today’s earnings, but establishing relationships that can grow alongside these clients over decades. For firms, supporting advisors in this space is about enabling responsible growth, deepening multi-generational relationships and positioning the advisory model for the future.

Establishing a Client Base

Focusing on financial literacy is one way that advisors can reach out to the student-athlete segment. Piehl, for instance, offers financial literacy sessions to student-athletes through a program she created called “Win Your Wealth.” If a student-athlete becomes a client, Piehl nourishes her relationships with them by focusing on “meeting them where they are” by using automation to work around their hectic schedules.

“They are incredibly busy juggling high-intensity priorities, so it’s important to set them up on automated systems that withhold from revenue and/or transfer from earnings,” she explained. “This can pay dividends in the long run and help set them up for success.”

Collaborating with universities can also provide a launching pad for developing a student-athlete advising practice. Financial advisors may find their own alma maters to be especially receptive to their services. For Jerry Toney, an advisor and program manager at Cadence Bank in Mississippi, working with student-athletes at Mississippi State University was a natural step — he was already extensively involved with his alma mater, having served on multiple committees and lectured at its college of business.

“My focus has always been on serving the university first; business opportunities followed naturally,” he said.

Financial advisors don’t necessarily need to be on campus to leverage their alma mater connections. Piehl, who now lives in Denver, has maintained close ties with the athletic department, professors and donors at UC Berkeley. And she has found that student-athletes prefer to work with university alumni, regardless of where those alumni live. School spirit, it seems, can power loyalty that transcends state lines.

But, as with all clients, a commitment to service can also make a difference when it comes to building relationships with student-athletes.

“This kind of engagement should come from passion, not self-interest,” said Toney. “It’s a way of giving back.”